Seven Iranians Arrested In Gaza Raid

Seven Iranian weapons experts were arrested in Gaza City during a raid on a Hamas stronghold by Palestinian security forces affiliated with Fatah. The weapons experts, including an Iranian Army general, were arrested Thursday night at Islamic University. Palestinian sources said another Iranian killed himself during the raid. United Press International .





Palestinian Authority security forces linked to the Fatah faction said they arrested seven Iranians during a raid on the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold, in the Gaza Strip overnight. The Fatah forces reportedly seized some 1,400 guns along with rocket propelled grenades and missiles during their raid on the university. The captured Iranians were described as weapons experts, and if Fatah's report is true (the group has not yet produced any evidence of the Iranian arrests), it would be the first time that Iranians have been caught working side-by-side with Hamas.
A Hamas official denied that Iranians were working with Hamas at the school. He also warned the Fatah forces that they would face "serious consequences" if they didn't stop their raid on the university.Iran also supports the Islamic Jihad terror group - as well as Hizballah in Lebanon. With the Gaza-Egypt border under Palestinian control, it is open to whomever wants to enter. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said in a radio interview on Friday that he could not confirm the capture of Iranians in Gaza, but he did confirm that Tehran has bought weapons for Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "[Iran] is also very intensively involved in training and upgrading the professional capability of the terrorist groups in Gaza," Sneh said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that Israel has been closely monitoring "enhanced Iranian support" for Palestinian extremists, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for several years. "This isn't just political support. This is very tangible support. The Iranians are interested in enhancing the terrorist military machine in Gaza and in the West Bank," Regev said by telephone.
Washington is backing Abbas' Fatah faction in its struggle against the Hamas-led government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is hosting the Quartet meeting, has signaled her determination to push for a final peace deal, even though the two sides have been unable to get past the basic preconditions for such a deal. Those preconditions include an end to terror on the part of the Palestinians, and an end to settlement expansion on Israel's part. Some Israelis have expressed uneasiness over the fact that the U.S. is helping to fund and train Abbas' forces, because in the past, those forces have participated in terror attacks against Israel. In fact, earlier this week, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Abbas' Fatah faction, jointly claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the southern Israeli city of Eilat that killed three Israeli men. (Islamic Jihad and a third group also claimed responsibility.) The following day, the White House announced that President Bush had ordered the U.S. to send more than $86 million to Abbas to bolster his forces. Critics of the U.S. move to back Abbas as a "moderate" warn that his ideology is no different than that of Hamas. The only difference, they say, is that Hamas openly calls for the destruction of Israel.
The Fatah constitution says that "armed struggle" is a strategy, not a tactic, and that "armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence." It says that the struggle will not end "unless the Zionist state [Israel] is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated."

Iran's Gaza Goons Caught at Helm of Bomb Factory

In a sign of growing Iranian meddling in the Middle East, an Iranian general and six others were seized by Palestinian security officers at a Hamas-controlled university where they ran a bomb factory in the school's chemistry labs, officials said yesterday. At least six people were killed in the shootout at the Islamic University after it was stormed by forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Iran has been known to finance Hamas, but the raid on the Gaza City university offered the first evidence that Iranian officials were taking an active, on-the-ground role in helping the Hamas terrorists.

The violence brought the Palestinian death toll to 25 since Thursday night, making it the bloodiest 24-hour period of the war between Hamas and Abbas. Members of Abbas' presidential guard and his Fatah faction raided the campus, a Hamas hotbed, late Thursday in search of weapons they said were being used to fuel the fighting that has killed more than 100 people. Fatah members said they found 1,400 weapons in campus buildings, including rockets and Kalashnikov rifles. They also arrested dozens of people, including at least 20 women who worked in the bomb factory, and an Iranian Army general, who supervised them, Fatah said.

One of the Iranians was said to have committed suicide in his Palestinian jail cell, according to Israeli media reports.

Hamas accused Fatah of setting fire to two of the campus buildings, but it denied the existence of a bomb factory or the involvement of Iranians. "The university has absolutely no business in politics or military work," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said. Altogether, more than 240 Palestinians were wounded yesterday, at least 19 critically. The dead included at least two children.

Among the clashes: * Fifty officers from Abbas' presidential guard surrounded the Hamas-led Interior Ministry and exchanged fire with Hamas gunmen guarding the building. Five guardsmen were killed. * Outside Gaza City, Hamas militants launched mortar shells at a Fatah training base, wounding 30 recruits, security officials said. One shell hit a nearby house and wounded two children inside. * Hamas gunmen blew up the Fatah-affiliated Voice of Labor radio station in the northern town of Jebaliya after a five-hour siege, according to Rasem Bayri, who heads the Palestinian Federation of Labor Unions.