TEL AVIV — The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has been smuggling
instructions on the production of bombs to agents in the West Bank.
In early May, a Palestinian operative of Hizbullah was arrested on
charges of seeking to smuggle instructions on producing and assembling
advanced bombs. The information was contained on a so-called "disk on key"
device, or m-drive. The m-drive is about the size of a cigarette lighter and
can store up to 64 gigabytes of data.
Israeli officials said Hizbullah has employed foreign and Palestinian
operatives to smuggle information on the assembly of bombs and rockets for
Palestinian insurgency groups. They said the information has been sent over
the Internet as well as provided to visitors entering Israel, the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported.
Officials said the woman was arrested as she crossed from Jordan into
the West Bank. They said the information was meant for her son, who lives in
the northern West Bank.
In October 2005, Hizbullah sent three Palestinian operatives from the
Gaza Strip to the West Bank with bomb-making instruction contained in an
m-drive. The operatives, members of the Iranian-financed Popular Resistance
Committees, were arrested in Israel.
Hizbullah has also employed Arab citizens of Israel to smuggle computer
chips with instructions on sabotage, officials said. Some of the chips were
said to have been placed in radios, television and ordinary appliances.
[On Tuesday, Israeli troops captured the commander of Islamic Jihad in
the West Bank. The commander, identified as Ibrahim Hamid and at one point
thought to have been killed, was arrested in Ramallah.]
