JERUSALEM Ñ Iran is investing heavily in the war effort against Israel Ñ not only in its base in Lebanon but in a second beachhead in the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Iran and the Hizbullah are trying to establish a Shi'ite center both in southern Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip. Peres told parliament on Tuesday that Iran is providing both weapons and funds for this effort, according to Middle East Newline.

"They are investing money, weapons and send orders," Peres said. "Iran is completely destroying Lebanon. The Hizbullah is the operative arm of Iran. It provides it [Hizbullah] with warehouses of missiles. The second place where they want to set up their center is in the Gaza Strip. They want two Shi'ite centers with missiles and murder in their eyes."

Israeli officials said the Islamic regime has increased its support to the Lebanese Hizbullah and Palestinian allies to threaten the Jewish state both from within and along the border areas. They said the Iranian effort includes the provision of advanced sabotage equipment and rockets to Hizbullah and the Palestinian Authority.

Iran has deployed Fajr-5 rockets from Iran, Israeli officials said. The rocket is said to have a range of 70 kilometers and can strike the northern city of Haifa from the Lebanese border.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian was arrested on suspicion of planning a bombing attack in the northern Israeli city of Afula. Police officers overpowered the suspect, described as a suicide bomber from the West Bank city of Jenin, before he could detonate the device, an Israeli spokesman said.

At the same time, authorities said they arrested whom they termed was a terror cell of Israeli Arabs financed by the Hizbullah. The six-member cell was said to have killed two Israelis as part of initiation rights to enter the Hizbullah-sponsored group based in Jordan.

In Gaza, the officials said, the Hizbullah has trained Palestinians to produce and detonate powerful land mines and bombs meant to disable Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers. Officials said these bombs have already been used in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Palestinian gunners fired a mortar toward an Israeli position in the Gaza Strip. Nobody was injured. Later, a Palestinian woman was killed in Israel's Negev desert during a army chase of illegal Palestinian laborers.

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