In cobbling together rockets, Hamas finds steel hard to get
TEL AVIV — Smuggling operations have provided a steady stream of explosives and missile parts to Palestian militia. But the metal housing for the rockets fired into Israel has proven more difficult to come by.
Israel's intelligence community has reported that Hamas was in contact with
Israeli merchants to deliver the metal in the guise of humanitarian aid.
Officials said one prospect called for the steel to be delivered as tanks
that contain natural gas.
"Hamas receives a steady flow of explosives, weapons and missile
components," an official said. "But what is much more difficult to smuggle
into the Gaza Strip is steel."
A former Israeli intelligence operative has been arrested on suspicion
of trying to sell 1,700 gas containers to the Hamas regime. The gas tanks,
found in several locations in Israel, were said to have been stolen from
homes.
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"The demand for these tanks wasn't just about the gas, but mostly
because these are iron tanks, a metal that can be easily used in the
manufacturing of weapons, rocket and mortar shells," Shimon Shlomo, a
senior inspector for the National Infrastructure Ministry, said.
Officials said Hamas and Palestinian militias have used poles from
traffic signs for missile and rocket launchers. They said Palestinians have
ordered fertilizer and related components, used in the assembly of
explosives.
Since the ceasefire with Israel in June 2008, Hamas was said to have
increased weapons smuggling from neighboring Egypt, Middle East Newsline reported.
Officials said Hamas has
brought missile components, weapons and explosives from both the
Mediterranean Sea as well as through tunnels that connect with the Sinai
Peninsula.
