Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) says Eritrea is among the countries through which weapons were being smuggled into Gaza to be used against Israel.
“This is a complicated smuggling system that involves many different people around the world,” one official reportedly told an Israeli local paper.
Israel’s security agency says it has learned, according to the report, that the Grad-model Katyushas were routed through Yemen, Eritrea, then moved to Sudan, and north to Egypt, and finally smuggled into Gaza.
Eritrea on its part reacted fiercely to the report calling it a smear campaign by a “CIA agent”
“In the wake of its futile attempts to defame Eritrea through linking it at one time with terrorism and at another with piracy, the Bush Administration is once again engaged in futile attempts to link Eritrea with so-called infiltration of armaments into Gaza, in a bid to cover up the tragic atrocities being committed in Gaza resulting from the Administration’s obstructionist policy,” an official website of the Eritrean government said.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit denied that the long range weapons were being smuggled through the tunnels from Sinai and distanced his country from allegations that it has helped the Hamas military build-up. Israel’s military officials agree the weapons were not smuggled through the tunnels but entered the Strip from Sinai.
Eritrea also allegedly aids the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka-a separatist group, numerous rebel groups in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Chad. A UN monitoring group disclosed last year that the radical militant groups in Somalia were also being armed and supported by Eritrea.
Meanwhile, over 700 people are reported to have died in an Israeli offensive that has been going on for the past two weeks.
Despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Israel on Friday went ahead with its attack in Gaza.
