CAIRO, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Egyptian authorities have seized a cache of ammunition inside a tunnel linking Egypt to the Gaza Strip, security sources said Monday.
A security official told United Press International on condition of anonymity the police found some 18,000 bullets hidden in boxes inside a tunnel in Tel Zurub, on the Egyptian side of the border with the Gaza Strip.
The official said initial investigations revealed the ammunition was to be smuggled to Gaza, but no one was found inside the tunnel or near it when the boxes were found.
The confiscation came as Egyptian diplomats rejected Israeli accusations that Egypt was responsible for smuggling weapons to Palestinian factions through its borders with Gaza.
Egypt was the first Arab country, followed by Jordan in 1994, to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Refuting Israeli accusations, an Egyptian border security source told UPI that authorities have aborted 50 smuggling attempts since October. He added that they have also arrested 18 Egyptians and 32 people of other nationalities -- namely from Sudan, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and China -- who tried to infiltrate into Israel from Egyptian territories in the past four months.
The police earlier this month also seized caches of mortar rockets and hand grenades buried in boxes under the sand near the border with Gaza after Egypt beefed up security on its borders with Israel, destroying a number of tunnels used to smuggle people and weapons.
