Jailan Halawi sifts through the confusion surrounding news reports of the uncovering of a Hizbullah cell in Egypt News that a Hizbullah cell had been uncovered in Egypt has dominated the domestic media agenda since it broke. That the cell was allegedly intent on using Egyptian territory to launch a spate of retaliatory operations against Israeli interests and targets has sent national security analysts into a tailspin. The first news item appeared on Wednesday 8 April, announcing the arrest of 49 Hizbullah members and sympathisers led by a Lebanese national, Sami Shehab. The group was soon being dubbed by the press as a "Hizbullah cell", suspected of smuggling weapons and ammunition, plotting attacks, spying, forging official documents and preparing explosive devices. It was then revealed that members of the group had in fact been arrested between December and January, that of the 49 suspected recruits 13 remain at large, Shehab's real name was Mohamed Youssef Mansour and that the operations being planned against Israeli targets were intended to avenge last year's assassination in Damascus of Hizbullah military leader Imad Mughniyeh. It is unclear what reasons lie behind the timing of the decision to reveal the news. On Thursday 9 April Prosecutor General Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid ordered the men be remanded for 15 more days pending investigations. During interrogation on Tuesday, Shehab denied all charges. On 10 April Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech by the group's Lebanese based Al-Manar satellite channel, that "brother Shehab" belonged to Hizbullah and was in Egypt strictly on "a logistical mission". Nasrallah denied there was any intention of conducting armed missions or espionage. While acknowledging that Shehab led a Cairo-based cell of nearly 10 members, Nasrallah insisted his only task was to "provide logistical help to Palestinian brothers, transporting ammunition and individuals for the benefit of the resistance inside Palestine". Hizbullah supports Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups in Gaza. A security source, speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on the customary condition of anonymity, insists that any aid offered to the Palestinian resistance must be done in such a way that "neither violates the sovereignty of other countries nor places their national security at stake". The source added that "regardless of how Nasrallah wants to portray himself, what he said [in his speech] provides the Egyptian authorities with enough reason to raise charges against him along with his cell". Shehab is reported to have been moved to head logistical operations following an injury sustained in 2006 while fighting Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. Both his parents are said to have been killed in the conflict. The network is said to include 12 Egyptians along with Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and Sudanese members of the cell. Security sources say the suspects were found to have $2 million in funds as well as quantities of weapons and ammunition. The group is thought to have rented an apartment building in Cairo along with additional properties, in Southern Egypt, in several Red Sea resorts, a villa on the Suez Canal and apartments close to the Israeli border, in order to keep the ships they allegedly wish to target under close surveillance. Meanwhile, security forces are combing the Sinai Peninsula in pursuit of 13 missing Hizbullah operatives. Ten are believed to be Lebanese and the remaining three from Sudan. They are thought to have taken refuge in the rugged mountains of Nekhil and Wadi Firan. There have also been reports of a search for three Palestinians in the Sedran area, near Nuweiba. When news of the cell first broke preliminary reports appeared claiming the prosecutor- general had concluded the case. Yet when political analysts and lawyers sympathetic to Hizbullah questioned the legality of a case built on "investigations" in which the suspects had no legal representation claims that the case had been concluded were retracted, with the relevant authorities saying that the interrogations were ongoing. Reports that the Bar Association had refrained from defending any of the suspects also proved untrue. In recent days it became clear Islamist Lawyer Montasser El-Zayat was defending Shehab and 12 other suspects, leading a team of three lawyers affiliated to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. On Tuesday El-Zayat said Shehab had asked him to convey his apologies to Nasrallah for failing to accomplish his "logistical mission" and also to reveal that though Shehab had requested permission to conduct retaliatory operations for Mughniyeh's assassination against Israeli targets in Sinai that permission had been refused. Soon after, El-Zayat denied he had said that. Sources close to the investigations contradict El-Zayat's account of Shehab's request, saying he had already confessed to taking orders from Nasrallah to conduct armed operations against tourists, both from Israel and other countries, in Egypt, using suicide attacks, booby-trapped vehicles and by planting bombs. In a seemingly unconnected development, an Israeli tourist vacationing with his family in Nuweiba was stabbed by a Libyan worker on Monday, announced South Sinai Governor Mohamed Hani Metwalli. The injured man was taken to the Israeli coastal city of Eilat and treated at the Yoseftal Hospital. Hospital officials say he was released after receiving stitches for wounds to his face. His assailant managed to flee, leaving behind his passport, and is currently being sought by the police.
