Israel Navy Chief Brig. Gen. Rani Ben-Yehuda said Wednesday that an arms ship seized near Cyprus earlier in the day had been carrying hundreds of tons of weapons.
Israeli commandos seized the ship before dawn on Wednesday and defense officials said it had been carrying missiles and rockets bound for Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas, believed to have come from Iran.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter war in the summer of 2006 that ended with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire, but occasional flare-ups occur.
Wednesday’s pre-dawn seizure in the waters near Cyprus was bigger than a similar haul in 2002, when Israeli military confiscated Karine A, a vessel with 50 tons of missiles, mortars, rifles and ammunition headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
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