JERUSALEM, March 10 (UPI) -- Hidden weapons recovered last week from an intercepted shipment from Iran to Gaza included rockets and mortar shells, the Israeli military said.
These are advanced weapons that were intended to threaten the security of millions of Israeli civilians," the military said Monday in a statement.
The list of captured weapons included 40 M-302 rockets, 180 12mm mortar shells and about 400,000 7.62mm bullets, the Jerusalem Post said Monday.
The Israeli Navy escorted the ship, the Klos C, to the port of Eilat after intercepting it Saturday on the Red Sea.
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Islamic Jihad was an intended recipients of the shipment, and Hamas was assumed to be a recipient as well, the newspaper said, adding the crew of the ship likely was not aware the weapons were aboard.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, speaking in Eliat at a public display of the weapons, said they "expose the true face of Iran" despite a more moderate Iranian administration and improved ties with the West.
Iran has denied all ties to the shipment.
Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazzayeri, of the Iranian armed Forces, told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency Sunday, "the Americans and the Zionists probably ordered (from) Hollywood the production of a movie with the scenario of a cargo ship carrying Iranian weapons to Gaza in Palestine."
At a Hamas ceremony in Gaza City unveiling a statue featuring a life-size M75 rocket Monday, an unidentified Hamas official said any future confrontation with Israel would target cities in Israel's far north.
The ceremony came in response to the public showing of the weapons seized in the intercepted shipment, the newspaper said.
