CAIRO, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement strongly condemned the Israeli aggression on the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum in Sudan, and expressed its solidarity with the Sudan. The Islamic resistance movement said in a statement on Thursday: "We strongly condemn this Zionist crime and dastardly attack carried out by the enemy's army against the Yarmouk arms factory in the Sudan." The statement said the aggression was "flagrant" and proved that Israel is continuing to violate international laws and norms, not only against Palestinian people, land and sanctities, but also against the Arab and Islamic states and peoples." more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh arrived in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday night as part of his first international tour since the siege on the coastal strip. Haniyeh told reporters in Khartoum that his visit aimed to highlight the risks to the Palestinian character of Jerusalem at the International Jerusalem Forum in the African capital. The city, annexed by Israel after a 1967 war, faces a "fierce attack by Israel's occupation and its systematic plans to Judaize the city, which has always and will remain an Arab and Islamic city," Haniyeh said at the press conference. He was greeted by Sudan's Minister of Information Kamal Ubeid, and presidential adviser Ibrahim Ahmad Omar on Tuesday evening. Haniyeh left Gaza on Sunday for the first time since Hamas seized power of the coastal enclave in 2007 and Israel tightened a land and sea blockade on the 1.7 million-strong population. more

Contrary to earlier reports , an Israeli air strike in Sudan (at Port Sudan on the Red Sea) yesterday that targeted a member of Hamas's military wing, Abdul Latif, did not ksucceed in killing him, although two other people died. Member of the Palestinian legislative council from Hamas Ismail Ashkar announced Thursday that his nephew Abdul Latif Ashkar survived the Port Sudan strike on Tuesday. Al-Arabiya reported earlier that Abdul Latif, who is considered Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's heir, was one of the victims. Two people were killed in the aerial attack on a car in Port Sudan on Tuesday, one of whom was reportedly a Hamas man. The legislator stressed that his nephew is doing well. "God saved him," he said. Ashkar described Abdul Latif as a prominent leader in Hamas's military wing who had escaped several attempts on his life. more

An old story but worthy of comment is Khaled Mashaal's recent statement in Sudan that the resistance forces are still able to get weapons into Gaza, despite the blockade. Israel earlier this year launched an air strike in Sudan against what it claimed was a weapons convoy en route to Gaza through Egypt. By DAVID BEDEIN Jerusalem – Hamas political chief Khalid Mash'al said on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza are able to buy, smuggle and manufacture weapons in spite of Israel's severe restrictions on the imports of any potential lethal substance into Gaza, ever since the Hamas' takeover of the Gaza regime in June 2007. This was confirmed by the Palestinian news agency, Ma'an . "You did miracles in Sudan and thank God, your brothers in Palestine, despite the siege, closure, harassment, the large conspiracy and fleets of the East and West, which prevent us from bringing weapons, we were able to buy, manufacture and smuggle weapons, thank God," said Mash...

Israel's undeclared war on Sudan continues. We reported in March that in January Israel attacked an overground convoy traveling through the country and supposedly carrying arms for the resistance in Gaza. Now this Saturday there were reports of an attack on an Iranian ship about to dock in the country. The suspected arms ship was torpedoed by an unknown power. Israel denied the earlier attack only for the US to reveal that it was indeed the Israeli, and not themselves, that had launched the attack. There have been no reports of casualties so far or statement from the Sudanese government. An Iranian vessel laden with weapons bound for the Gaza Strip was torpedoed off the coast of Sudan last week, allegedly by Israeli or American forces operating in the area, the Egyptian newspaper El-Aosboa reported yesterday. Anonymous sources in Khartoum told the newspaper that an unidentified warship bombed the Iranian vessel as it prepared to dock in Sudan before transferring its load for shipm...

The Israelis have killed two Palestinian resistance fighter and wounded three others near the border fence in central Gaza, according to chinaview.cn Time magazine reports that the Israeli air strike on Sudan was not carried out by a lone drone but by 'dozens of Israeli jets and drones'. Apparently the US warned Sudan of the imminent attack. See Gaza Solidarity's earlier report here

The Sunday Times is confirming from western diplomatic sources this morning that Israel did launch an air strike inside Sudan in January on what it claimed was a suspected weapons convoy headed for Gaza via Egypt. Our report earlier in the week, spoke only of an airstrike, quoting Sudanese rebel forces, but the Sunday Times now reveals that it was in fact an Israeli drone that launched the attack. The Sunday Times says the 'Iranian' convoy was carrying Fajr3 missiles with a range of at least 40 miles would bring Tel Aviv and Israel's nuclear facilities at Damona. It is likely that the resistance has been trying to get longer range missiles and will persist in attempting to do so - a further sign of the strategic weakness at the heart of Israeli military planning: Israel used unmanned drones to attack secret Iranian convoys in Sudan that were trying to smuggle rockets into Gaza. The missiles have the range to strike Tel Aviv and Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona, defence s...

The Sudanese government has accused the US of launching an air strike on the country in January. It is claimed that the strike was on a weapons convoy on its way to Egypt en route to resistance fighters in Gaza. However, the US has denied involvement and implicated the Israelis instead. According to CBS News national security correspondent David Martin an official at the Pentagon told him, “Israeli aircraft carried out the attack”. “Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza”. The first admission that Sudanese sovereignty had been violated came on Monday when state minister for highways, Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem, said: "A major power bombed small trucks carrying arms – burning all of them. It killed Sudanese, Eritreans, and Ethiopians and injured others." The Sudan Tribune reports today that the Sudanese ...

On Sunday, January 27th, after scoring a goal during Egypt’s victory over Sudan, Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Aboutreika revealed the shirt he had been wearing which bore the slogan “Sympathy for Gaza” in Arabic and English. Unfortunately the player was reprimanded by the Confederation of African Football, although, as the blogger points out, nothing has happened to the Ghanaian player who waved an Israeli flag during the World Cup