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Tel Aviv - A shipment of 13 containers of weapons, disguised as building materials and seized in the Nigerian port of Lagos, may have been on its way to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday, citing Israel defence officials..

The 13 containers, whose bill of lading listed construction materials, when opened on Tuesday was found to contain rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives.

They had been unloaded from an Iranian ship, and according to reports, the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) had received intelligence beforehand about the intention to smuggle weapons in containers via Lagos.

Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli Foreign Ministry official as saying that the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria has been holding talks with the SSS and the Nigerian Foreign Ministry to try to find out more about the weapons.

A senior Israeli defence official said preliminary information indicated that the seizure of the weapons exposed a possible new arms smuggling route from Iran to Hamas, via Africa.

He said that, owing to beefed-up international supervision of Iranian ships, Tehran may have experienced difficulties in sending arms to Hamas via the Red Sea to the Sudan region and from there to Gaza via the Sinai peninsula..

Transfer by land

"Perhaps the Iranians were planning to unload the weapons in Nigeria and transfer them by land to Sudan and Sinai," Ha'aretz quoted the official as saying.

In March 2009, foreign media reported that the Israel Air Force attacked a convoy of weapons in Sudan on its way to Gaza. Israel refused to confirm its involvement in the attack.

In November 2009, the Israel Navy boarded the vessel Francop in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran to Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In September this year an arms delivery from Iran to Syria was intercepted in Italy's Calabria port.

A few days later an arms shipment from North Korea to Syria was captured in a Greek port.