israelinsider: Briefs: Egyptian security destroys tunnel to smuggle weapons into Gaza Strip, police say

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09.28.06

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Egyptian security destroys tunnel to smuggle weapons into Gaza Strip, police say

By: Associated Press

Published: September 28, 2006

Egyptian security forces on Wednesday destroyed a tunnel used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip, police said.

Police discovered the tunnel Wednesday near Karm Salem, less than 3 miles from Rafah crossing point, Capt. Mohammed Amin said. No arrests were made in the operation and police later detonated explosives in the tunnel to block it up.

On Tuesday, Palestinian security forces discovered two underground tunnels along the Gaza Strip border with Egypt. Only one reached Egypt and officials sealed it later in the day.

Since Israel pulled out of Gaza last summer, turning control of the border over to Egypt and the Palestinians, the Israeli military has said that cross-border smuggling of weapons and explosives has increased considerably.

The chief of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, on Wednesday accused Egypt of allowing Palestinian militants to smuggle 19 tons of weapons and explosives into the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew from the coastal area last year.

"The Egyptians know who the smugglers are and don't deal with them," Diskin told a meeting of Israel's Cabinet, according to a participant in the meeting. "They received intelligence on this from us and didn't use it."

But the representative to Egyptian parliament for Rafah, Fayez Abu Harb, took issue with the intelligence chief's comments, calling them "lies propagated by Shin Bet." "Egypt respects its commitments and international agreements with its neighbors, and protects its borders as a matter of national security," he said, mentioning that Egypt has discovered several tunnels and seized many caches of contraband from them in recent years.

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