Israel: We Seized Iranian Ship Sending Missiles to Gaza

Israel raided a cargo vessel today that it says was loaded with Iranian missiles bound for Gaza. A special forces unit took the Kloc C, which is registered in Panama, in an early-morning raid personally overseen by Israeli Defense Forces chief Chief Benny Gantz, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post report. Inside they found dozens of Syrian-built M-302 rockets of the sort Hamas used during the 2006 Lebanon war. "We have proof and can say with certainty that Iran is behind this," a senior IDF officer said.

Israel believes the rockets were first flown from Damascus to Iran, and then shipped to Iraq, where they were hidden in cement, and finally to Gaza via Sudan. Israel attacked the ship before it could reach Sudan, when it was less than 1,000 miles from Israel's coast. Hamas dismissed the report as a ruse designed to justify Israel's Gaza blockade. Iran has not yet responded, according to the AP, but the Revolutionary Guard did announce today that it now has missiles with multiple warheads. (More Israel stories.)