By DPA Last update - 00:30 01/01/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101004.html

Egyptian police seized half a ton of explosives in a cemetery in the town of
Rafah, an Egyptian security official said on Saturday.

Police discovered eight large plastic bags full of TNT in the Maqronatien
cemetery in the divided town of Rafah, which is bisected by Egypt's border
with the Gaza Strip, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry said, requesting
anonymity.

Tanks shells and ammunition left over from the 1967 and 1973 wars with
Israel were also found in the cache, he said.

Egyptian security officers also discovered 10 mortar rounds and a horde of
ammunition of different calibers buried in a trash bag in a warehouse in
Rafah, the source said, adding that police were investigating, but had not
yet made arrests in connection with the find.

Egypt has been under consistent international pressure, particularly from
the United States and Israel, to curtail weapons smuggling across its border
with the Gaza Strip.

Last week, four Palestinians were injured when a smuggling tunnel they were
building under the border collapsed, suffocating them, Palestinian medics
said.

Palestinian security officials said the tunnelers had apparently been
working to replace smuggling tunnels Egyptian police had recently destroyed.