TEL AVIV Ñ Israel has charged a Palestinian aeronauatic engineer with receiving missile training from Hizbullah in Lebanon.
The suspect was identified as Ahmed Aviti, a Palestinian Authority official and member of the ruling
Fatah movement.
It was the first time Israel has accused Hizbullah of supplying missile
expertise to the Palestinians. Earlier, Israeli intelligence sources said
Hamas and the ruling Fatah movement were acquiring missile expertise from
other sources.
An Israeli government statement said the Palestinian was contacted by
Hizbullah during his pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca earlier this year. He was
given instructions to travel to Lebanon in October, where he underwent
training in missile development and expertise.
"Aviti used the skills he acquired to train Hamas terrorists and worked
to improve the capabilities of the Al Banah missile," the statement said.
The statement said Aviti traveled to Jordan earlier this year to receive
training as a pilot. It did not elaborate.
Israeli authorities arrested the 40-year-old suspect when he returned to
the Gaza Strip in November. Aviti confessed to Israeli investigators that he
was recruited by Hizbullah.
The Hamas movement has developed the short-range Kassam class of
missiles. They include the Kassam-1, with a range of four kilometers, the
Kassam-2, with a range of between six and eight kilometers, and the
Kassam-3, with a range of 10 kilometers.
Aviti arrived from Lebanon in 1994. Five years later, he
received permission to bring his wife and children from Lebanon to the Gaza
Strip.
Over the last eight years, Aviti was said to have worked as an
aeronautical engineer at the PA airport at Dahaniya. He was said to have
participated in the improvement of the Al Bana anti-tank missile as well as
the construction of tunnels that linked the Gaza Strip with Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula.
