The sources said Egypt and Hamas have coordinated the flow of weapons
and insurgents along the border between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza
Strip. They said Cairo has turned a blind eye to the massive smuggling of
weapons, missiles, explosives and insurgents to the Gaza Strip in exchange
for Hamas efforts to prevent attacks in Sinai.
In October, Egypt enabled nearly 100 Hamas and Islamic Jihad insurgents
to move from the Sinai town of El Arish to the Gaza Strip. Many of the
insurgents were identified as operatives trained in weapons production in
Iran and Lebanon.
For its part, Egypt has cited efforts to block the flow of weapons to
the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Egypt reported the capture of 500 kilograms of
TNT in Rafah near the Sinai-Egypt border. On Thursday, Israel's military
killed two Hamas operatives near the Egyptian border.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that Egypt sever ties with Hamas and
close the Rafah passenger terminal. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee that Egyptian
security arrangements along the Gaza border were unsatisfactory, and said
she discussed the issue with Mubarak last week.
"We have received very disturbing reports in recent weeks that Egypt has
not only failed to stop the flow of arms into Gaza, but certain Egyptian
authorities are cooperating with the terrorist organization Hamas in
smuggling vast amounts of modern weaponry into the Gaza Strip," House
Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Tom Lantos said.
Egypt has denied cooperation with Hamas and insisted that insurgents
were entering the Gaza Strip by breaching the border wall.
On Oct. 21, Israel Security Agency director Yuval Diskin said 73 tons of
explosives were smuggled to the Gaza Strip since June 2007. Diskin said
Hamas obtained at least 1,650 rocket-propelled grenades and 6,000 bombs in
2007.
The sources said the Hamas regime has responded to Egyptian requests to
arrest and extradite fugitives. They said Hamas extradited an Egyptian
national accused of being the head of the Al Qaida network.
At the same time, Hamas has sought Egyptian approval for the transfer of
100 injured Palestinians for medical care in Egypt. The sources said most of
the injured were Hamas fighters involved in battles with Israel or the Fatah
movement.
"The direction points to increased Egyptian-Hamas cooperation and a
steady decline in Egyptian coordination with Israel on border security
issues," the Israeli military source said.
