If Israel was behind the bombing of a Sudanese munitions plant on Wednesday—as everyone assumes it was—then it's easy to recognize the motives for such a mission.
Israeli military commentators said that the Yarmouk arms factory was owned by Iran and used to supply arms to Hamas in Gaza, The Guardian reports. Leaked U.S. State Department documents from three years ago support this report, according to the BBC.
A UN source told The Guardian that the "Egyptians have told us that the arms flowing into Sinai [and possibly to Gaza] from Sudan are a big security problem" and that recent clashes in which Israel and Egyptian troops have engaged armed radical Bedouin groups are connected to the strike in Khartoum.
"In the same days we've seen a dramatic increase in rockets fired into Israel from Gaza," the UN official said. "The convergence of these elements points to Israel as the perpetrator."
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak declined to comment, but influential former general and senior defence ministry official Amos Gilad praised the country's air force and called Sudan a "terrorist state" Israel Army Radio.
Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman told reporters that the East African country "thinks Israel did the bombing," citing that the four radar-evading aircraft "appeared to come from the east" and that evidence pointing to Israel had been found among remnants of the explosives.
"There is no doubt that the explosion in Khartoum will be food for thought not only for the authorities in Sudan but also in Gaza – and especially in Tehran," Ron Ben-Yishai, a veteran military commentator, wrote in daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth about what would have been 1,000-mile bombing raid for Israel.
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