Israel’s military said it has intercepted and seized a shipment of advanced weapons from Iran that were being sent to terror groups in the Gaza.
Among the discovered weapons: Long-range missiles that could reach nearly every site in Israel, The Blaze reported.
A spokesman for Israel Defense Forces announced the interception in a tweet: “BREAKING: The #IDF intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets sent to terrorist organizations in #Gaza.”
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner also said, in a separate message reported by The Blaze, that “Iran attempted to smuggle tens of M302 surface to surface rockets to the terrorist organizations in Gaza.”
He said the IDF discovered the shipment in a “complex, covert operation” that led to an early morning raid aboard the Iranian Kios C ship that was sailing under a Panama flag in the Red Sea.
IDF officials boarded the vessel and took control. The 17-member crew did not resist, Mr. Lerner said, in The Blaze. Ynet News reported the rockets were “concealed in boxes of cement.”
The Times of Israel said IDF forces had been monitoring the ship’s movements for days, and that Israeli authorities finally intercepted it about 1,000 miles from their coast, between Eritrea and Sudan. Some of the missiles on board had a range of 125 miles, The Times of Israel reported.
“The M302 in its most advance model can strike over 100 miles, and if they would have reached Gaza, ultimately that would have meant millions of Israelis under threat,” Mr Lerner said, to Reuters.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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