Doubts surface on Gaza destination of rockets seized by Israel | Reuters, 25th of March
A U.S. official said Washington had confirmed the Syrian and Iranian provenance of the rockets and believed they were to have been used against Israel. But half of U.S. intelligence analysts thought Sinai, not Gaza, was the destination, the official said.
“You look at those things and it’s obvious they couldn’t have been slipped into Gaza,” the official said, adding that the
M302s were not designed to be disassembled for easier smuggling.
Israel said it had also found 181 122mm mortar shells aboard the Klos C, and some 400,000 7.62-calibre bullets.
The U.S. official agreed that the mortar shells were meant to go to Gaza, saying: “You can fit each of those in a backpack.” But the bullets, the U.S. official said, may have been meant for another client elsewhere in Africa.
With their 160 km (100 mile) range, the M302s could have been launched from areas of Sinai well away from Israeli spotters along the Egyptian border, and struck Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.