TerrorismFrench consulate worker in Israel arrested for Gaza gun-running

Published 19 March 2018

Israel says it has detained a French consulate official suspected of smuggling weapons from the West Bank to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, using an embassy vehicle with diplomatic license plates. The Israeli police says the individual was motivated by money, not ideology. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said Monday it had arrested a diplomatic official who was accused of smuggling weapons into Gaza.

Israel says it has detained a French consulate official suspected of smuggling weapons from the West Bank to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, using an embassy vehicle with diplomatic license plates. The Israeli police says the individual was motivated by money, not ideology.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said Monday it had arrested a diplomatic official who was accused of smuggling weapons into Gaza.

NBC News reports that the suspect, a French citizen, had used a consulate vehicle to smuggle 70 pistols and two assault rifles past security checks at the Erez crossing, on the border between Israel and Gaza.

Diplomatic vehicles are subject to less rigorous security checks.

Shin Bet said the suspect was part of a Palestinian gun dealers network which aimed to sell the guns to arms dealers in the Gaza Strip. The smuggling had taken place over recent months.

A French Embassy spokesman said the embassy would cooperate with Israeli authorities. It said the suspect was a member of the consulate-general in Jerusalem.

“We take this case very seriously and we are in close contact with the Israeli authorities,” said an embassy spokesman.

Hamas had seized control in Gaza in the summer of 2007, and the densely populated territory has been under tight blockade by Israel and Egypt since then.

Until recently, Hamas used tunnels to smuggle weapons and contraband in the Gaza Strip, but tunnel-detection technology has improved, and both Egypt and Israel have been effective in their campaign to destroy Hamas tunnels.

Hamas has also built tunnels into Israel in order to use them in attacks against Israeli troops, but these tunnels, too, are being methodically destroyed by Israel, and Israeli intelligence says that Hamas has given up on building new tunnels to replace those destroyed.