Army of Islam caught in Egypt
2007-10-31 08:43
Ismailia - Three Palestinians caught entering Egypt through a tunnel from Gaza this month were members of an al-Qaeda-inspired group who planned to enter Israel to carry out suicide attacks, said police sources.
The sources said the men told police they were from the Palestinian group Army of Islam, which kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston in Gaza in March and took part in the abduction of an Israeli soldier last year.
One of the three men was caught wearing explosives around his waist and the group also had other explosives and hand grenades, said sources, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
The sources named the men as Ibrahim Ahmed, 42, Hassaan Youssef, 21, and Khaled Essam, 22. They were in contact with an Egyptian driver who was going to drive them to the central section of the Egyptian-Israeli border, they added.
Police had advance warning of their plan and detained them on October 16 as they were coming out of a tunnel on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border. A fourth man was able to crawl back through the tunnel, they said.
The tunnel, in the Rafah area about six kilometres from the Mediterranean, was 950m long.
The Egyptian authorities publicised their activities against smuggling and illegal crossings of the border with Gaza after repeated Israeli complaints that they were not doing enough to prevent arms and explosives reaching the Palestinians.
Gaza had been under the control of the Islamist movement, Hamas, since June, when the Hamas drove out the Fatah movement favoured by Israel, Egypt and the United States.
The Egyptian government said it was doing its best with the personnel it was allowed to deploy there under the 1979 peace treaty and a subsequent agreement with Israel.