On Wednesday, October 18, 2006, IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis) reported the following:
Brigadier General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, who was the research chief for military intelligence until four months ago, told Hatsofeh, in an interview to be published on Friday, October 20:
“Before the withdrawal we expected weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, but we didn’t expect the volume. We really didn’t expect the huge quantities.”
Kuperwasser’s statement should be contrasted with former Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter’s testimony before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on January 5, 2005. Dichter described some threats inherent in carrying out Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull the IDF out of the Gaza Strip:
“In a situation where Israel is not in control of the Philadelphi corridor [which separates Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula], terrorists arriving from Lebanon are liable to infiltrate through it into the Gaza Strip and there is the distinct possibility that in a short while the Gaza Strip will turn into south Lebanon.”
Dichter also cautioned that the current “trickle” of arms smuggling through the corridor is liable to turn into a “river.”
