Palestinians "could bring down aircrafts"
Reuters
Date: 03-29-05
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip that might be moved to the West Bank and used against commercial aircraft flying over central Israel, Israeli security sources say.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet earlier in the week that Israel had asked the Palestinian Authority to locate several Soviet-designed Strela missiles now in the Gaza Strip, the sources said on Tuesday.
"If they don't, then we will have to do it," one of the sources quoted Mofaz as saying.
He also told the cabinet that members of the Palestinian Military Intelligence security branch had helped militants smuggle the shoulder-fired Strelas into Gaza through tunnels under the occupied territory's border with Egypt.
"They have crossed a red-line," Mofaz was quoted as saying.
The Palestinian Authority denied Mofaz's accusations.
The security sources said there was concern the missiles could be moved to the West Bank and used against planes landing at or taking off from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, where flight paths veer close to the West Bank.
The heat-seeking Strela missiles are capable of shooting down aircraft within a 3-mile range.
In 2002, al Qaeda militants fired two Strela missiles at an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombassa, Kenya, but missed. Israel has since said it installed anti-missile devices on some of its commercial planes.
Source
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