Israeli authority says container breached Gaza border
Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, has confirmed that a container suspected of having a role in a terrorist attack in the Port of Ashdod had been fitted with a double wall in Gaza.
A civilian security checker failed to notice the double wall and passed the container through a crossing point into Israel.
The container is believed to have held two Palestinian terrorists who subsequently killed 10 Israelis at the Ashdod port in suicide attacks March 14.
The container had arrived in Gaza from Europe a month ago, carrying marble and ceramics. It had been returned ostensibly empty from Gaza, passed through the Karni border crossing, and remained in a terminal yard for two and one-half hours before the attacks occurred.
Investigators found clothes and blankets in the container, as well as a small, hidden door that could be locked from the inside.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted that the terrorist group Hezbollah has been especially active in using shipping containers, to the point that that security experts have begun calling them “Trojan seahorses.”