This morning, Israel intercepted a ship, the “Victoria,” about 200 miles off of its Mediterranean coast. The ship was believed to have departed from Syria, to have stopped over in Turkey and to be headed to the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The Victoria is German owned and operated by a French shipping company. The ship was loaded with “game-changing” weapons, according to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Israel, with the consent of the ship’s captain, boarded the Victoria and rerouted it to the Israeli port city, Ashdod. The Victoria was flying the Liberian flag.
It is believed that the weapons were to be unloaded in Alexandria and to be smuggled to Gaza through the elaborate network of tunnels that are known to connect Gaza with neighboring Sinai. The IDF has made it clear that they do not suspect either Turkish or Egyptian involvement in the weapons-smuggling activities.
Netanyahu has stated, unequivocally, that these weapons originated in Iran. He said, “The source of the weapons is Iran, which continues to try to arm terrorist forces against Israel.”
There has been speculation that these weapons were brought to Syria by the two Iranian warships that crossed through the Suez Canal last month. Iran had claimed that the two ships were “carrying a message of peace to the nations of the world.” Tehran has denied that the weapons aboard the Victoria originated in Iran.
According to Al Jazeera, Hamas has also denied any involvement and has dismissed “the Israeli statement as propaganda designed to damage the reputation of Hamas in the international community.”
So just to recap, a German owned, French run ship flying the Liberian flag set sail from Syria and was sailing to Egypt via Turkey. Israel boarded the ship, thought to be carrying Iranian arms, as it ultimately made its way to Hamas in Gaza. Is it fair to say that there were a lot of hands involved in these arms?
