Israel Intercepts Terrorist Weapons Shipments: the Art of Deceit

March 15th in the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea – an innocent looking commercial ship flying a Liberian flag is stopped by the Israel navy. The operation was approved by PM Netanyahu taking into account confirmed reports that the vessel was carrying illicit arms destined for terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Nothing in the freight manifest of the Victoria revealed the true nature of the content of the ship’s containers. The crew had no idea they were carrying illegal weapons intended for terrorists and were quite surprised when a preliminary search by the boarding party, found significant amounts of arms and military equipment.

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

In addition to weapons, soldiers who boarded the “Victoria” also found a radar used to detect ships prior to the launching of missiles from the coast.

There is no doubt these weapons would have been used by Hamas against Israeli civilians. This attempt at smuggling large amounts of weaponry aboard the Victoria provides additional proof of Israel’s imperative need to examine all goods entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Iran has been creative in its attempts to transfer weapons to it’s allies in the region over the last 10 years. Weapons were transferred on board ships like Karine A (carried 50 tons of weapons), aerial convoys and trains. Weapons are often concealed as humanitarian aid. After the earthquake in southern Iran in January 2004, the world was sending in help to Iran. In return, Iran disguised aerial convoys as humanitarian aid and tried to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. A few years after that an Iranian train carrying arms (mortar shells, light arms, rocket launchers and ammunition) was uncovered in Turkey. The arms were destined for Hezbollah. Again , the Iranians attempted to conceal and disguise the arms in order to avoid suspicion by the Turkish authorities.

The illegal smuggling of arms to the Gaza Strip poses a direct and imminent threat to the safety and security of Israel and its citizens. As Hamas keeps firing rockets from Gaza, Iran will do whatever it can to keep the weapon route alive. All of us in Giyus.org hope for peace but as long as terrorists control Gaza, Israel must maintain its naval blockade and ensure weapons will not reach their hands.