Last update - 07:02 01/06/2004

Mofaz: Many RPG launchers made in Egypt smuggled into Strip

By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Reproduced with permission from ©Haaretzdaily
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=433639

A large number of rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers manufactured by the Egyptian military industries have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting.

Mofaz said that most of the weapons smuggled through underground tunnels into the Gaza Strip were manufactured in Iran, and included hundreds of Kalashnikov rifles, mortars and thousands of bullets. He added that Katyusha rockets were also supposed to be smuggled into the Strip, but that they were still in the Sinai peninsula.

Committee chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said Monday that he was worried by Egypt's involvement in weapons smuggling, saying that Egypt hasn't done anything to eliminate weapons smuggling and sometimes even assisted them. "The Egyptians are letting us and the Palestinians drink each other's blood," Steinitz said.

Mofaz also told the committee that terror organizations want to avenge the assassination of senior leaders, and that they intend to hurt Israel ahead of the planned disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

The defense minister also listed the successes of the war against terror: Not a single suicide bombing took place in Israeli territory since March 14, and in May alone 18 planned suicide attacks were foiled.

The head of the Military Intelligence research unit, Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, told the committee Monday that terror organizations were starting to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Israel in areas other than the Philadelphi route. He said that between 10 and 20 people are involved in weapons smuggling in the Rafah area, and that most of them are members of the Palestinian security apparatus.

He added that the Palestinian leadership headed by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was closely following the disengagement plan and that it is worried that after Israel's disengagement from the Strip, it would turn into a large prison for Palestinians. He said that terror from the Gaza Strip would be reduced following Israel's pullout.

Sarid, Eldad: Mofaz's appearance before panel is 'insult to intelligence

Both left-wing MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz-Yahad) and right-wing Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said Monday that Mofaz's appearances before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee were an insult to intelligence.

The two legislators expressed concern at the quality of the defense minister's presentations to the committee. "In today's meeting too Mofaz failed, as usual, to answer questions and remarks made by panel members," the MKs said.

Sarid and Eldad added that the minister arrived at the meeting with a prepared speech, and would not deviate from it or address new issues the MKs were interested in discussing.

Several members of the panel, among them panel chairman Steinitz, said that the attack by IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon on Arab MKs who condemned the behavior of IDF soldiers was out of line, but that Mofaz refused to make any response to the issue.

Other committee members said that "towards the end of Mofaz's lecture, only four MKs remained in the room." They said that Mofaz made ridiculous comments, such as claiming that settlers evacuated from Gush Katif would settle the Galilee, the Negev and the West Bank. "How does he know where the settlers will go?" asked one of the MKs.

The defense minister's media adviser said in response that the statements against Mofaz join legislators' recent condemnation of the IDF and the defense establishment.