Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula recently seized a large store of weapons and explosives that were to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported Tuesday.
The cache of weapons included dozens of anti-aircraft artillery shells and several anti-aircraft missiles, according to the report. The weapons and ammunition were discovered in a hole inside an isolated desert storage facility.
The weapons are usually smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Sinai via tunnels. The IAF has targeted many of the tunnels in response to rockets and mortars being fired into Israeli territory.
In September, Egyptian police discovered nine weapons caches in the Sinai Peninsula, a week after finding several stores in the same area, Ma’an reported. The weapons, which officials believed were meant to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip, were found in Rafah, El-Arish and other locations in northern and central Sinai.
Egyptian security officials said they found machine guns, ammunition, over 170 anti-aircraft shells, 90 artillery shells, 200 bullets of varying sizes, anti-tank landmines and 100 kilograms of TNT.