By: TPS Staff
Israeli authorities on Sunday exposed and confiscated a large shipment of fabric that can be used for the manufacturing of uniforms in route for the Gaza Strip, the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said.
A shipment of fabrics and disposable goods that was to be shipped from Israel to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing was checked by the Land Crossing Authority of the Ministry of Defense, and the shipment was found to contain dozens of olive-green cloth rolls.
Each roll is 60 meters long and could be used by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to sew military uniforms. The shipment was seized by Israeli authorities.
The fabric is considered a “dual-use” material, products that can be used for civilian purposes as well as for terrorist activities.
Israel’s combined security agencies have been successful in thwarting thousands of attempts to smuggle illicit materials into the Gaza Strip in the past years.
Smuggling attempts have increased each year since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
In many of the incidents, the smuggled materials are meant for Hamas’ rocket production program or its military build-up.
In a somewhat related development, Iran has begun to install advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in breach of the nuclear agreement, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned, prompting Israel to call for international action.
Acting Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Cornel Feruta confirmed that Iran had installed or was installing IR-4, IR-5, 30 IR-6 and IR-6 domestically-developed centrifuges.
Feruta was in Iran on Sunday and met with Vice-President and President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other Iranian senior officials.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on Saturday that it will start feeding gas into its centrifuges and commence with nuclear research and development.
Responding to the revelations, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Monday appealed to the governments of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the rest of the countries partner to the nuclear agreement to “immediately announce the implantation of the mechanism for discussing the breach of the agreement, and to cancel the agreement and join the US sanctions against Iran.”
“History shows time and time again that submission to tyrants results in violence rather than peace,” he cautioned. “The world must unite and curb Iran’s race to nuclear power and in its support of regional and global terrorism.”
Commenting on the Iranian threat earlier in the day while addressing the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Katz said that Israel’s policy “is clear: only unrelenting pressure on Iran and its metastasis can prevent war and destruction later. We must not let go of the sanctions on Iran and repeat past mistakes.”
Simultaneously, Israel should deepen its cooperation with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East, he underscored.
He said he was under the impression that there “is a historic opportunity to develop relations with them. This is because of the shared view of the threats and the recognition of Israel’s assets, in intelligence and security and civilian areas alike,” he explained.
(TPS)
