Israel Seizes Arms Allegedly Being Shipped to Palestinians

Breaking what it described as a major smuggling operation, the Israeli military said Friday that it had intercepted a ship in the Red Sea carrying 50 tons of advanced weaponry destined for the Palestinian Authority.

The ship was owned by the Palestinian Authority, and its captain and several members of the crew were officers in the Palestinian naval police force, Israeli military officials said. Had the arsenal reached the Palestinians, it would have substantially increased Palestinian firepower.

Israel announced the seizure in a news conference in Tel Aviv as U.S. Middle East envoy Gen. Anthony C. Zinni was meeting with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Spokesmen for Arafat denied any knowledge of the arms shipment, the largest of several that Israel claims to have intercepted or detected in the last 15 months of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli army chief of staff, said the cache included Katyusha rockets with a 12-mile range, 120-millimeter mortars, antiaircraft missiles, mines, armor-piercing Sagger antitank missiles and sniper rifles.

Most of the weapons apparently came from Iran and were contained in 83 crates packed onto the vessel in a watertight container that could be submerged for a long period for later retrieval, Israeli officials said.

Mofaz said that had the cache reached the Palestinians, “it could have dramatically raised the threat faced by Israeli civilians and soldiers and significantly widened the scale of terrorist attacks.”

Antitank and antiaircraft weapons, especially, could reduce the enormous advantage that Israeli gunships and armor have over Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mofaz noted that the smuggling attempt violated interim peace deals that set limits on the type and number of weapons in the Palestinian Authority arsenal. Most of the weapons on the ship are forbidden to the Palestinians under the existing agreements.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Arafat should take immediate steps to prevent future attempts to bring weapons into the territories.

Boucher told a daily briefing that Zinni brought up the Israeli allegation at a meeting with Arafat on Friday. Zinni “expressed our strong condemnation of any attempts to escalate the conflict in the region by militant groups or others,” Boucher said.

Under cover of darkness early Thursday, naval commandos backed by aircraft boarded the Karine-A ship about 300 miles from Israeli shores in international waters of the Red Sea. The vessel was headed north, but Israeli authorities didn’t reveal its port of departure or likely destination.

The crew didn’t resist and fired no shots, Mofaz said. No casualties were reported.

Arafat spokesman Nabil abu Rudaineh, following the meeting with Zinni, said the Palestinian Authority had “absolutely nothing to do with, nor knowledge of” the arms shipment. Abu Rudaineh accused Israel of a “propaganda ploy” aimed at undermining Zinni’s mission, which is to broker a lasting cease-fire and move Israelis and Palestinians toward broader peace talks.

Still, Israel’s allegations are undoubtedly embarrassing to Arafat, coming at a time he is trying to convince Zinni and the world that he is serious about cracking down on terrorism.

Israel hopes to use the smuggling operation to further discredit Arafat and the Palestinian Authority and bolster its argument that the Palestinians cannot be trusted.

“The link between the Palestinian Authority and the smuggling operation is unequivocal, clear and undeniable,” Mofaz said. The intercept, he said, is proof that the Palestinian Authority is “infected by terrorism from head to toe.”

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo joined in denying Israel’s charges. “We insist that the Palestinian Authority has nothing to do with this ship,” he said. “These allegations are false.”

Last May in the Mediterranean, Israel captured what it said was a fishing vessel packed with hundreds of weapons headed for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. A radical group claimed responsibility for that smuggling attempt.

The shipment captured Thursday dwarfs the earlier one, Israeli military officials said. It also may prove to be the first time that the Palestinian Authority is directly linked to a large smuggling scheme.

Despite Friday’s announcement, Zinni emerged from his meeting with Arafat and said he was optimistic that, in contrast to his stay here in December, “conditions are right” for progress to be made in easing tensions. A security meeting involving the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians was likely to take place Sunday, officials said.