5 Tons Of Bombs Stolen From Gaza

Five tons of unexploded bombs have been stolen from Gaza under Hamas' guard, according to the United Nations and reported by the AP.

U.N. spokesman Richard Miron said the explosives were being stored in Gaza until a U.N. team of disposal experts could disarm them, but they disappeared.

The bombs were dropped on Gaza during Israel's offensive there last month, according to another U.N. official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said three one-ton bombs and eight quarter-ton bombs were taken from the warehouse in northern Gaza.

"It's clearly extremely dangerous and needs to be disposed of in a safe manner," Miron said. The material was under guard by Hamas police between Feb. 4 and 14 when it was stolen, he said.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the explosives were probably taken by Hamas. He said Israel had been informed by the U.N. about the missing ordnance.

Israel has blamed Hamas for stealing the bombs, reports Haaretz. The explosives include aircraft bombs and white phosphorous shells.

Haaretz also reports that a UN team has been working in Gaza for the past three weeks but has been delayed by Israel.

A UN team trained to remove and destroy unexploded ordnance has been operating in the Gaza Strip for three weeks, but its work is being held up because Israel has not approved the entry of its equipment nor an area for storing and neutralizing ordnance.

For now some of the latter, located by the Palestinian police, is being stored in locations that are dangerously close to population centers in Rafah, Khan Yunis and Gaza City. The team is waiting for permission from the IDF to use two safe areas to dispose of the ordnance.

Despite the delays, the team has made some progress that does not depend on equipment, especially in searching out unexploded ordnance, many of which have already been collected by Hamas officials.

Comments

[skialethia]

Here is the account of a woman, both IsraeliandAmerican who actually visited Gaza, ground zero for these b ombs and what she says about the damage they caused. She has a right to talk! She's not speaking to me, however! She's especially speaking to TS, ML, AJ &co.!

There is a lesson here, and don't let me see drivel in any of your replies to this post. Some things ARE sacred!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/to-gaza-with-love_b_167941.html

[roybattyjunior]

Israel has blamed Hamas for stealing the bombs, reports Haaretz.

Ummmmm...how can you steal what's been given to you?

The IDF dropped them from the sky to the Palestinians...so wasn't the IDF giving the Gazans the bombs?

[washlib]

and i'm sure Is.ra.el will use this as an excuse to bomb hamas targets last month, because they have US-made bombs.

hmm, maybe the bombs shouldn't have been dropped in the first place?

i know, so un american of me to say..

[BubbaC33]

The bombs were dropped in an effort to force Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel. The IDF has the obligation to protect Israeli citizens, Arba and Jew, from attacks by terrorists. Hams is a terrorist organization.

[skialethia]

Not by killing 437 children and maiming close to 1,500!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kraznet]

An estimated 200,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been
displaced since fighting erupted in Darfur in 2003.

To focus so much attention on Palestinians at the expense of the genocide in Darfur (Muslim killing Muslim), the Muslim on Muslim violence in Iraq, the executions of Muslim gay teens and violence towards Muslim women in Iran, the sentences of stoning or beatings for rape victims in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia (where woman are forbidden to drive), The burning to death of young girls in Saudi Arabia (they could not be saved by male firemen because they were not wearing burkahs), the epidemic of honor killings by brothers/fathers of young girls in Britain, Canada,Turkey, the crisis in Zimbabwe, is not only morally reprehensible but indefensible.

[msfsi]

Your profile has been active since May 2008. There have been dozens of blogs about these events you mention. You have NOT ONE post that does not concern Israel/Palestine.

[skialethia]

Off topic!!!!!!! We are discussing b ombs in Gaza and not Zimbabwe, Darfur and everything else you mention off topic! If you are so worried about them go there, VOLUNTEER and give of your time instead of preaching to us!

We are on an I P thread here, or haven't you noticed. I have gone to the Darfur thread and commented and right now I'm not interested in your hypocrisy!

[thruthseeker]

I dont know who, many on these posts, are or where they post from
but some should start considering therapy..
the obsession with israel has now reached into the clinical realm.
Israel has become the focus of their little lives..
Its like an addiction. Cant wait for the next fix.
Try Zimbabwe or Congo or better yet Pakistan, thats where the action is..
As for israel, it will do whatever it deems necessary against its enemies
without any concern for her adoring fans in the blogosphere.

[msfsi]

When was the last time you posted anything on a blog concerning Zimbabwe, Congo or Pakistan?

I'll tell you, and I don't need my accountant for this one: NEVER.

You almost exclusively defend Israel or condemn Islam and have shown almost no concern for any other event where you can't wave your GO ISRAEL/ DOWN WITH MUSLIMS pom poms in the air after each post.

[Amomma]

This is a free country msfsi, your profile is no better. If you knock yourself out helping those who do not value freedom of speech, or freedom of anything, you may just lose it. Once Israel goes guess who will be the target next. Think really hard.........,

[Amomma]

The point is progressives may be helping a group of people who hate everything progressive. It is kind of like giving civil liberties to those who would (and do) take civil liberties away.

[toddag]

The Is rael is probably stole them so that the UN people would not have hard evidence of the type of weapons they had used in crowded urban areas. That would also explain why the UN team is having a hard time getting access.

[Mark Rieder]

It seems to me that if some of the ordnance was white phosphorous, it is in the IDF's best interest that it 'disappears' because it can be used as evidence in a potential war crimes tribunal. So I find IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner's comment particularly disingenuous.

[BubbaC33]

Using WP is not a war crime, it was used extensively in Viet Nam and has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Manchurian]

Using WP in heavily populated civilian areas is a clear and indisputable war crime.

[chaos4700]

Gee, yeah, and it's not like any war crimes were committed in any of /those/ conflicts.

[chaos4700]

Yeah. Right. I'm sure it was Hamas that arranged for those bombs to "disappear." I'm sure Hamas is drawing up plans right this minute to drop those bad boys with their nonexistent air force. It's not like they had any vested interested in keeping those bombs safe until the UN team could properly defuse and examine them. It's not like Israel had a vested interest in keeping the UN team's equipment confiscated until the evidence evaporated into the ether.

Funny. This sounds an awful lot like another "blocking the bomb" plot I read about recently.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/16/israel-launches-covert-wa_n_167432.html
I guess somebody's spooks are working overtime.

[BubbaC33]

What do you suppose the insurgents in Iraq use to build IED's? These unexploded bombs are a good first step in the building of an effective IED. Hamas certainly has a reason to steal them and a way to use them. But as usual you attack Israel when no evidence exists to suggest any wrongdoing by Israel.

[chaos4700]

If Hamas wanted to just keep the bombs, then the UN wouldn't even /know/ about them.

[Fein]

And now they'll be used against the aggressor that dropped them - how appropriate,

[chaos4700]

I wouldn't assume these were stolen by Hamas. I wouldn't even assume they were ultimately taken by any Palestinians, for that matter.

[BubbaC33]

Spin, distort, attack Israel and forgive anything Hamas might do.

[skialethia]

You're being facetious, right? These b ombs weigh 500lbs. or more each. I guess H amas acquired F-16's and black hawks from the U.S.?

[BlackWidowPilot]

Welcome to asymmetric warfare. Hamas will attempt to extract the explosive materials from those bombs, and use them for IEDs or vests for suicide bombers.

UXBs are worth their weight in gold to guerilla forces, if those forces have the technical know-how to get at the useful stuff inside: Hamas does not need an air force to return those explosive to their original owners... just enough disaffected, brainwashed youth to wear the vests the UXBs will yield...

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[kraznet]

As the Wall Street Journal wrote on May 6th, 2008
"For reasons both telling and mysterious, Israel has become unpopular among that segment of public opinion that calls itself progressive. This is the same progressive segment that believes in women's rights, gay rights, the rights to a fair trial and to appeal, freedom of speech and conscience, judicial checks on parliamentary authority. These are rights that exist in Israel and nowhere else in the Middle East. So why is it that the country that is most sympathetic to progressive values gets the least of progressive sympathies?"

it is therefore very strange that, because of their rabid anti Israel views, these progressives are apologists for Islamic fundamentalists (such as hamas and hezbollah) who loath and despise every progressive belief that these folks hold dear.

in Israel gay marriage and adoption are recognized. To be Pro Palestinian is to be anti women, anti gay and anti democracy.

Finally, To focus so much attention on Palestinians at the expense of the genocide in Darfur (Muslim killing Muslim), the Muslim on Muslim violence in Iraq, the executions of Muslim gay teens and violence towards Muslim women in Iran, the sentences of stoning or beatings for Muslim rape victims in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia (where woman are forbidden to drive), , the epidemic of honor killings by Muslim brothers/fathers of young girls in Britain, Canada,Turkey, the crisis in Zimbabwe, is not only morally reprehensible but indefensible.

[Mark Rieder]

This is a typical example of using rhetoric to claim that anyone who criticizes an action is to be lumped in with those who are ideologically opposed to a group and by doing so, is guilty of a "morally reprehensible and indefensible" act.

To claim that criticizing Israel's actions is the same as condoning other atrocities around the world is incredibly convenient, and is a typical move to try and stifle debate.

[Adam Jacobowitz]

Here, Here !!! Finally somebody on this site makes sense !!!

[msfsi]

Muslims are viscious, backward, nasty people. "Progressives" who condemn Israel's actions by posting on blogs that have to do with Israel/Palestine do it for misguided, possibly insidious, reasons.


Thanks for clearing things up.

[Robertx5]

So let me get my head round this one.
Palastinians find the unexploded ordinance, and tell the Hamas Palastinian police, who presumably collect the stuff themselves, or arrange for the international bomb disposal experts to do so and it is then kept under Hamas guard at designated sites.Some of it is stolen, and the very people who do this, are deemed to be the ones who handed it in to begin with and were also guarding it. Unless it's a government ' make work scheme ' why bother, surely much better to steal it before anyone knows it is out there.
Now it may be that Hamas is responsible, but I suspect more likely 3rd parties are involved, maybe Fatah or perhaps even the Israeli's. One thing is certain though, when any of this ordinance is detonated, the paper trail has already been laid to blame one group - Hamas.

[who38]

Isn't the hang-up that Israel and Egypt would not open the borders so that UN personnel could bring in equipment to detonate the bombs? If so, didn't those countries just shoot themselves in the foot?

[Robertx5]

Israel and Egypt never make bringing things across the border easy, even when it involves the U.N. and unexploded ordinance. Both countries know that because the military onslaught on Gaza has reduced in intensity the pressure on them from many western governments has reduced considerably. They are also probably pretty sure that Hamas isn't looking to cause trouble (they tend to retaliate after they have been attacked). So although of concern we can post all day on the issue, it won't make any difference.
Western goverments and media do not lose sleep over a closed border and unexploded ordinance , but if some of that ordinance is used in an ' atrocity ', then those same governments and media will be ' outraged and shocked ' and will fully back agressive measures against the people who they have already been primed to blame - Hamas.
So for me the much more interesting and in the longer term perhaps more important issue is, who has stolen the ordinance, and what are they intending to do with it
.

[ROBOT8]

IT'S THE SAME IN AFGAN/PAKISTAN REGION.......THE SO-CALLED ENEMY DOESN'T HAVE THE POWER TO GO ON SO THEY BAIT THEM WITH A LIMITED ARSENAL....... THE AFGAN PAKISTAN REGION IT WAS AK-47'S AND SHOULDER HELD ROCKETS.......... THE ONLT BATTLES ON THIS PLANET ARE FINANCIAL, NOT IDEALISTIC­......IT'S ALL A LIE!

[truthynesslover]

finders keepers?

[who38]

Good one.

[mikesw]

Can you steal bombs that were dropped on you?

[openlids]

exactly what i was thinking

[Macready]

me too . . .

[thruthseeker]

Whats the matter with all of you?. have you all gone off the deep end..

What the Un is concerned about is the safety of people around those bombs.

israel couldnt care less what happens to 5 tons of ammo..
And couldnt care less if they end up blowing a whole square bloc.
Every army tells The Un where unexploded ordinance is..

Hysteria and obsession is becoming the norm here.

Get a grip people, you gonna need it at some point soon.

[washlib]

considering that Israel does not follow any UN mandates, and cares even less for Geneva conventions about munitions, it is more likely that they are setting up a re-invasion to attack Hamas for "holding" their bombs. More than likely Mossad stole them to set up Hamas.

[111]

1 - Israel dropped the bombs on Gaza
2 - Israel, the occupying nation, has refused to allow the equipment needed to 'neutralize' the bombs into Gaza. Hahahahahahahahaha

Israel delivered the bombs to Hamas. Maybe Hamas will be nice enough to send them back to Israel the same way they were delivered or maybe they should offer Israel's gifts to the West Bank where Israel has announced it has decided to steal more land to expand its settlements? Sometimes there is justice in the world.

How about the UN being worried about those hundreds of nuclear war heads that Israel has? How about the UN be concerned about the covert war against Iran that the US and Israel are waging now?
How about the UN being worried about Israel stealing land in the West Bank to expand it's settlements on land already stolen from Palestinians?

[thruthseeker]

How about the bombs isr eal will be sending soon..

[Macready]

totally agree with you 111 . . . this story is not headline news . . . israel is the problem . . . and the UN has to impose sanctions and boycotts against israel