CAIRO: Egyptian police seized over a ton of explosives in central Sinai on Monday, security officials said, adding that they suspected the material had been destined to be smuggled into the Palestinian territories. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that security forces on a routine patrol found the explosives packed in 40 sacks hidden in a mountainous area. They were believed to have been intended for the Gaza Strip. Egyptian police routinely find large quantities of explosives and ammunition in Sinai, sometimes hidden in tunnels near the border with neighboring Gaza. Tensions have also mounted recently between Egyptian police and Sinai Bedouin who took to the streets in April over the deaths of two Bedouin in a chase with the police. Hundreds of Bedouin later massed near the border with Israel, seeking entry to the Jewish state because of what they describe as poor treatment which they receive from Egyptian authorities. Egypt has blamed a group of Sinai Bedouin sympathetic with the Palestinians for attacks on resorts popular with Israeli tourists in the peninsula since 2004. Bedouin and human rights groups say Egyptian security services launched campaigns of arbitrary arrests of Bedouin after each attack, fuelling public anger in Sinai.
