ISRAEL says it has seized a truck carrying chemicals used to make explosives hidden in bags marked as EU aid for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The army said 6.5 tonnes of potassium nitrate were in bags marked as sugar from the European Union for Palestinians in the coastal enclave. EU officials in Jerusalem had no immediate comment. The cargo in a Palestinian truck was travelling in the occupied West Bank and seized several weeks ago at an Israeli checkpoint, the army said.
The EU is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Israel tightened its military and economic cordon of the Gaza Strip after Islamist Hamas seized the territory in a June war with secular Fatah.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22987323-23109,00.html
Hamas holds 1,700 passengers of two ferries hostage in Gulf of Aqaba in standoff with Egypt
December 29, 2007
Our military and intelligence sources reported earlier that the hundreds of Hamas and other terrorist chiefs aboard the Jordanian ferry The Princess threatened to torch the craft anchored opposite Nuweiba, Sinai, and scuttle it with everyone aboard unless Egypt permitted them to land without conditions.
A 62-year old Palestinian female passenger, Shafiqa Bahisi, died under the strain. It also transpired that an Egyptian craft was involved in the standoff. Rather than surrender, the lead Hamas negotiator aboard the ferry, Kemal Neirab, aka Abu Awad, of the Popular Resistance Committees, Gaza, threatened a world-class human tragedy.
As the hours passed Saturday, Dec. 29, without a let-up, Hamas gathered tens of thousands of supporters from around the Gaza Strip to ram the Rafah gateway to Egyptian Sinai, while Cairo beefed up its security units at the terminal.
Excerpted
Ping to Oorang’s post regarding Hamas:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933472/posts?page=1224#1224
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Cindy’s adding a keyword link:
(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=hamas )
Thanks for the update.
My daughter took her kids on vacation to Egypt last spring. There were no bad incidents. Still, I think it’s a risky place to visit.