Israel seizes ship full of weapons for Palestinian forces.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

JERUSALEM _ Israel said on Friday that it had seized a freighter smuggling some 50 tons of Katyusha rockets, anti-tank missiles, grenades, rifles and other weapons bound for Palestinian combatants in the biggest arms shipment of its kind that the nation has intercepted.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government accused Iran of providing the weapons, and said it was bracing for a flare-up of violence.

"This (arms shipment) is preparation for war. Anybody who has this quantity of weapons is planning for the next stage of war," Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said.

Israel's air force and navy captured the Karine A freighter in the Red Sea about 310 miles south of the port of Eilat "in a daring and complicated mission" that was a "complete surprise" to the vessel's crew and left no casualties, said Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. The freighter was being escorted into Eilat and had yet to arrive, he said.

Mofaz said the link between the freighter and the Palestinian Authority was "clear and undeniable. The ship itself is owned by the (Palestinian Authority) and the captain is a senior officer in the Palestinian naval police."

"We deny any connection to this ship," said Nabil Amr, the Palestinian minister of parliamentary affairs. "Many parties smuggle by sea to different people."

A senior U.S. official said intelligence suggested the arms were loaded in the Persian Gulf state of Dubai and were being delivered to the radical Muslim group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and not to Arafat's Palestinian Authority. The official, in Washington, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Katyusha rockets seized aboard the freighter have a range of 12.5 miles and could have radically boosted the ability of Palestinian combatants based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to cause destruction in nearby Israeli cities.

Mofaz said the seizure included the rockets, two kinds of missiles capable of piercing tank armor, mortars, landmines, advanced explosive equipment, sniper rifles, bullets "and much more."

The army delayed announcement of the seizure, which occurred at dawn Thursday, until almost the exact hour Friday afternoon when the Bush administration's senior peace envoy to the Middle East, retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, walked into a meeting with Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Zinni arrived Thursday for a four-day visit.

Zinni attended an informal breakfast meeting Friday with Sharon and senior members of his government. Afterward, a Sharon government statement said the Israelis told Zinni "that the only way to get Arafat to act (against terrorist violence) is for the U.S. and Europe to increase pressure on him."

Announcement of the intercepted weapons shipment comes at a critical juncture. Washington is attempting to nudge the Palestinians and the Israelis toward a cease-fire and revival of stalled peace negotiations. A peace process broke down 15 months ago, leading to a bloody cycle of Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli clampdowns on Palestinian areas.

Within the past two weeks, violence has let up, fueling a glimmer of hope for negotiation.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

"It's a delicate time," said Judith Kipper, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. "Zinni is there, and violence has fallen, and now (the Palestinians) got caught."

Kipper noted that Iran is known to supply weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the radical Islamic Jihad movement in Palestinian-dominated areas, but the new seizure "is a new phenomenon of finding the actual weapons being shipped from Iran."

Last May, Israel seized the Santorini, another vessel, in the Mediterranean Sea with a cache of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and other munitions bound from Lebanon to Palestinian combatants, although the shipment was smaller than the one aboard the Karine A, army officials said.

In other action, Israeli commandos backed by helicopters in the air and tanks on the ground swept into the village of Tel near the West Bank city of Nablus early Friday, arresting two Hamas militants and killing a third. The army said the three were on Israel's most-wanted list.

Gissin, the prime minister's spokesman, said the militants were sought because they took part in a Dec. 12 ambush of a bus near the Jewish settlement of Immanuel in the West Bank. That attack left 10 people dead.

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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

Zinni.

(c) 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

_____

PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

Zinni.

Israel seizes ship full of weapons for Palestinian forces.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

JERUSALEM _ Israel said on Friday that it had seized a freighter smuggling some 50 tons of Katyusha rockets, anti-tank missiles, grenades, rifles and other weapons bound for Palestinian combatants in the biggest arms shipment of its kind that the nation has intercepted.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government accused Iran of providing the weapons, and said it was bracing for a flare-up of violence.

"This (arms shipment) is preparation for war. Anybody who has this quantity of weapons is planning for the next stage of war," Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said.

Israel's air force and navy captured the Karine A freighter in the Red Sea about 310 miles south of the port of Eilat "in a daring and complicated mission" that was a "complete surprise" to the vessel's crew and left no casualties, said Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. The freighter was being escorted into Eilat and had yet to arrive, he said.

Mofaz said the link between the freighter and the Palestinian Authority was "clear and undeniable. The ship itself is owned by the (Palestinian Authority) and the captain is a senior officer in the Palestinian naval police."

"We deny any connection to this ship," said Nabil Amr, the Palestinian minister of parliamentary affairs. "Many parties smuggle by sea to different people."

A senior U.S. official said intelligence suggested the arms were loaded in the Persian Gulf state of Dubai and were being delivered to the radical Muslim group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and not to Arafat's Palestinian Authority. The official, in Washington, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Katyusha rockets seized aboard the freighter have a range of 12.5 miles and could have radically boosted the ability of Palestinian combatants based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to cause destruction in nearby Israeli cities.

Mofaz said the seizure included the rockets, two kinds of missiles capable of piercing tank armor, mortars, landmines, advanced explosive equipment, sniper rifles, bullets "and much more."

The army delayed announcement of the seizure, which occurred at dawn Thursday, until almost the exact hour Friday afternoon when the Bush administration's senior peace envoy to the Middle East, retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, walked into a meeting with Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Zinni arrived Thursday for a four-day visit.

Zinni attended an informal breakfast meeting Friday with Sharon and senior members of his government. Afterward, a Sharon government statement said the Israelis told Zinni "that the only way to get Arafat to act (against terrorist violence) is for the U.S. and Europe to increase pressure on him."

Announcement of the intercepted weapons shipment comes at a critical juncture. Washington is attempting to nudge the Palestinians and the Israelis toward a cease-fire and revival of stalled peace negotiations. A peace process broke down 15 months ago, leading to a bloody cycle of Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli clampdowns on Palestinian areas.

Within the past two weeks, violence has let up, fueling a glimmer of hope for negotiation.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

"It's a delicate time," said Judith Kipper, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. "Zinni is there, and violence has fallen, and now (the Palestinians) got caught."

Kipper noted that Iran is known to supply weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the radical Islamic Jihad movement in Palestinian-dominated areas, but the new seizure "is a new phenomenon of finding the actual weapons being shipped from Iran."

Last May, Israel seized the Santorini, another vessel, in the Mediterranean Sea with a cache of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and other munitions bound from Lebanon to Palestinian combatants, although the shipment was smaller than the one aboard the Karine A, army officials said.

In other action, Israeli commandos backed by helicopters in the air and tanks on the ground swept into the village of Tel near the West Bank city of Nablus early Friday, arresting two Hamas militants and killing a third. The army said the three were on Israel's most-wanted list.

Gissin, the prime minister's spokesman, said the militants were sought because they took part in a Dec. 12 ambush of a bus near the Jewish settlement of Immanuel in the West Bank. That attack left 10 people dead.

___

_____

PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

Zinni.

(c) 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

_____

PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

Zinni.