Israeli sources quoted Tuesday by Time magazine revealed that the January attack on a convoy of trucks carrying weapons bound for Hamas through Sudan was carried out by "dozens of aircraft." According to the sources, the strike consisted of two runs by F-16 bombers, with F-15 fighter planes also on hand in order to provide a quick response in case Sudanese or other enemy aircraft decided to attack the squadron. After the initial bombing run, the sources said, drones flew over and filmed the burning 23-truck convoy. When the footage showed that it had not been completely destroyed, the F-16s were dispatched for a second pass. The report said that the aircraft refueled over the Red Sea.
Sources quoted by the report denied that US aircraft had been involved in the strike. "The Americans were notified that Israel was going to conduct an air operation in Sudan, but they were not involved," a source was quoted as saying. He also denied reports that the raid had been one in a series of such attacks on Iranian arms shipments.
According to the report, the strike was a "warning" to Iran and a show of intelligence capabilities and daring in carrying out such an operation far from Israel's borders.
The attack, the report said, came after the Mossad was tipped off by an informant, who said that Iran was planning a shipment of 120 tons of weapons and explosives, including Fajr 3 rockets and anti-tank missiles. "The Israelis had less than a week to pull this all together," a source was quoted as saying.
The Sudan smuggling route had been used before, the source said, but never for such a large delivery. "This was the first time that the Iranians had tried to send Hamas a shipment this big via Sudan - and it is probably the last," he said, adding that several Iranians were among those killed in the raid. "No doubt the Iranians are checking back to see who might have leaked this to the Israelis."
The report also quoted a Hamas official who confirmed that there was an arms convoy headed for Gaza through Sudan but claimed that there were only 15 trucks containing far fewer weapons than earler reports claimed. He said that Israel was "trying to overplay the quantity" in order to justify its decision to thwart the delivery.
A Hamas "security official" told Time that the destruction of the convoy was not a serious setback for his organization. "We have our own 'home delivery' set-up for weapons," he said, citing the Beduins who were still smuggling arms in large quantities through the network of tunnels linking the southern Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula.