According to wikipedia.com, the Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the South-West and Israel on the South, East and North. It is about 41 kilometres long and between six and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres.
Although it is under the administration of the Palestinians Authority, Israel maintains control over the crossings in and out of Gaza.
Israel recently intercepted a number of ships carrying aid to Gaza, accusing their operators of trying to breach its embargo on the Hamas-controlled territory.
The Israeli military officials, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to journalists, told the Associated Press in Lagos that the military-grade armaments originated from Iran.
Nigerian officials had said on Wednesday that the arms came from India.
Iran remains a bitter enemy of Israel and supports Islamic militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza that are in a state of war with the Jewish state. In the winter of 2008, Israel launched a military campaign against Iran-backed militants in Gaza in an attempt to stop years of almost daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.
The Israeli officials declined to provide evidence to support their claims, citing ‘security concerns.’
But Hamas leader, Ismail Radwan, denied that the weapons were headed for Gaza. Hamas is the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement which has since attaining power in Palestine in Januay 2006 continued its refusal to recognise the state of Israel.
The Israeli afficials and Radwan spoke with the AP shortly after the National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi (retd.), met in Abuja with top security chiefs over the Apapa Wharf seizure.
When THE PUNCH sought the view of a marine historian, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, on the Israeli military authorities’s claim, he said the logistics of moving weapons cache to Gaza Strip from India through Nigeria was implausible.
Olukoju, who has just been appointed as the vice-chancellor, Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State, said, “Nothing can be ruled out in a deadly global power politics, especially the life and death struggle in the Middle East.
“But the logistics of moving the weapons cache to Gaza makes this implausible. Maybe, Israeli intelligence knows what we don’t or it is a red herring.”
The claim by the Israeli military officials conflicts with the statement by officials of the Nigeria Customs Service that the weapons, which included 107mm artillery rockets, were destined for the country.
President Goodluck Jonathan had while reacting to the seizure of the arms and ammunition said the importer had a sinister motive.
The NCS also said on Wednesday that the vessel (MV Everest) that brought in the arms and ammunition berthed at the Apapa Wharf on July 10 and left on July 15, 2010 after the containers, in which the weapons were concealed, had been off-loaded.
It added in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, that MV Everest last stopped at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port in India before coming to Nigeria.
Adeniyi said there had been some attempts to clear the containers “for importation into Nigeria” but “we understood later that there was an application to re-export them.”
MV Everest, a cargo ship registered in the Marshall Islands, is chartered by CMA-CGM, a shipping company based in France.
In a statement released on Thursday, CMA-CGM said the containers holding the weapons were owned by the firm that shipped them. The shipping company said the manifest for the weapons described the shipment as “packages of glasswool and pallets of stone.”
The containers “were supplied, loaded and sealed by the shipper, delivered to the port of loading for transportation and remained sealed during the whole transportation process, The seals were fully intact upon discharge in Nigeria, the statement added.”
The company declined to comment further other than to say it had cooperated with Nigerian security services.
In the hands of highly trained troops, the 107 mm artillery rockets can accurately hit targets as far as eight and a half kilometres away, killing everything within about 40 feet. Fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq have used similar rockets against American troops. China, the US and Russia manufacture versions of the rocket, as does Iran – which calls the weapon a Katyusha rocket.
In 2006, the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, fired nearly 4,000 Katyusha rockets across Israel’s northern border, some of which fell as far as 90 kilometres inside Israel.
When our correspondent contacted the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ozo Nwobu, to ascertain if the ministry had contacted Iran on the allegation, he replied, “All questions pertaining to that incident should be directed to security agencies handling the investigation.”
But a source said the ministry would only take up the matter with the affected country after investigations had been concluded by security agents.
An official of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abuja, who declined to be named, said the allegation was unfounded.
The official said, “You know we have a lot of enemies. Did your people see the bill of lading? Did it say it was from Iran? Was anyone arrested and the person confessed that we were involved? We need answers to these questions.”
THE PUNCH learnt in Abuja on Thursday that Azazi, met for over five hours with top security chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, over the arms seizure.
It was also gathered that the Federal Government had directed stricter security presence at the ports in Apapa, Onne and other parts of the country to forestall their use for arms shipment.
A source, who made this known, added that the government had directed that security be beefed up in all the nation’s air and sea ports.
“The Navy has been put on the alert and has been instructed to strictly monitor all the waterways so that nobody can ship arms into the country. The President is concerned about the matter of arms proliferation in the country and he wants everything possible to be done to reduce it,” he said.
http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010293582734
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