KARINE A, PART II

Lebanese nab terrorists headed for Gaza
The Lebanese army caught a boat on its way to Israel last week that was loaded with weapons, including long-range missiles, Channel 1 revealed Thursday night. According to military sources who confirmed the report, the boat was on its way to Gaza from Lebanon and planned to drop off canisters filled with weapons, explosives and rockets off the coast where they were to be collected by Palestinian fishermen.

Government officials speculated that the boat was funded by Iran or Syria and that the weapons were meant to reach either the Hamas or the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

In 2002, the Karine A ship was captured in the Red Sea by special IDF forces. The boat’s cargo, intended for the Palestinian Authority, included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles.

“There are attempts to smuggle weapons into Israel all the time,” one official said. “They will do anything they can to get weapons here which they can use in attacks against Israel.”

According to Lebanese media reports, the boat - together with four passengers - was caught off the southern port of Tripoli. The boat’s point of origin was a dock at Naher Al Bard - a nearby Palestinian refugee camp.

Officials conjectured that the Palestinians onboard were members of the terrorist organization that fired Katyushas toward Kiryat Shmona last month. [ED., I.E., AL QAEDA]

See also: Four Al-Qaeda-Linked Palestinians Heading for Gaza Arrested in Lebanon - Haim Issarovitch
Four Palestinians arrested Saturday in northern Lebanon said they were planning to carry out military attacks against Israeli targets along the Gaza coast, the London-based Al-Hayat reported Thursday. The Palestinians were detained by the Lebanese Army as they attempt to leave the country in a ferryboat packed with weapons and explosives, a high-ranking official said. He said the Palestinians confessed they belonged to Asbat al-Ansar, an Islamist armed group considered a branch of al-Qaeda, based in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon. They also said a key figure in the group from the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in the north had planned the operation and provided the boat. Asbat al-Ansar leader Abdel-Karim al-Saadi, who has been sentenced to death for murder, is widely believed to be holed up in Ain al-Hilweh, which is controlled by Palestinian armed groups. (Daily Star-Lebanon/Maariv-Hebrew)