De Israelische Terreur 805

'Israel accused of carrying out air strike on Sudanese soil

Olmert says his nation can hit every place 'near and far' in order to stop
terror

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Friday, 27 March 2009

Israel carried out air strikes in January on a convoy moving through Sudan
which it believed to be carrying weapons destined for Hamas in Gaza,
according to a report by the US television network CBS.

Two Sudanese politicians yesterday confirmed that unidentified aircraft
targeted the convoy in a remote desert region north-west of Port Sudan on
the Red Sea coast.

The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to fuel
speculation that his country's air force was behind the attack, which
reportedly killed 39 people, when he said that "Israel hits every place it
can in order to stop terror, near and far". CBS reported that Israeli
intelligence had learnt of plans to move weapons north through Sudan into
Egypt and then smuggle them into the Gaza Strip to Hamas. The report said
that those killed were manning the 17-vehicle convoy, although a number of
civilians had also been injured in the attack, which occurred in the same
month as Israel's offensive in Gaza.

While Israeli defence officials had earlier appeared to pour cold water on
the report that their aircraft had carried out the attack, Mark Regev, the
spokesman for Mr Olmert, would only say that it was not Israel's practice
"to respond to these sort of allegations when they arise in the press".

Interdiction of the convoy would certainly chime with Israeli intelligence
warnings in the past that weapons destined for Hamas in Gaza were being
shipped from Iran through the Persian Gulf and on to Sudan. Whether or not
the attacks were carried out by Israeli warplanes, they appear to have been
in the spirit of an agreement signed in the closing days of the Gaza
offensive by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, and the outgoing US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, aimed at curbing arms traffic into
Gaza.

The aims of the accord are thought not to have been confined to tightening
controls on the Egypt/Gaza border itself but to have also referred to
measures needed to stop Iranian-derived arms along earlier sections of the
route.'
Lees verder:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-accused-of-carryi

ng-out-air-strike-on-sudanese-soil-1655366.html