LONDON — Palestinian insurgents have benefited from a steady supply
of weapons and ammunition from Sudan.
Western intelligence sources said Sudan has been a major source of
weaponry for such groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the ruling Fatah
militia. The sources said the Sudanese weapons, delivered via Egypt, were
far cheaper than from other places.
[On Sunday, Palestinian gunners fired a Kassam-class short-range missile
into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, Middle East Newsline reported. The missile was said to have landed into
a maximum security infrastructure facility in what Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz termed an increase in Palestinian capability.]
"It's [Sudan] become a huge source of weaponry for the Palestinians as
well as
for other militias in need of equipment," a source said. "There's an entire
infrastructure that's proven highly reliable."
The sources said Palestinian insurgents began using the arms smuggling
route from Sudan in 2003. They said the arms have come primarily from
military surplus in the western Sudanese province of Darfour.
From Darfour, Sudanese smugglers have transported the weaponry to Egypt.
The equipment then was brought over the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula.
From the eastern Sinai town of Rafah, the weapons, ammunition and explosives
were smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
The sources said that until 2004 Palestinian insurgency groups relied
mostly on weapons and ammunition from Egypt and Yemen. But the groups turned
to Sudan amid the war in Darfour, which sparked a huge weapons trade.
For years, Israel's military refused to acknowledge the Sudan
connection. Until 2005, Israeli military intelligence would cite Egypt and
Yemen as the main sources of weaponry for the Palestinians.
Officials said smuggling has increased from the Sinai since Israel's
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September 2005. They said Palestinian
smugglers transported weapons from Sinai to the Gaza Strip via land and sea.
