The Palestinian Authority has transferred two metal pipes marked "Gaza Department of Streets and Sanitation" to Israel that were thought to be planned for use in the production of rockets in Bethlehem on Wednesday. The rockets, Palestinian security officials speculated, were to be fired at Jerusalem. Palestinian security forces had discovered the pipes, along with TNT and a briefcase holding documents in an area between Bethlehem's El-Aida refugee camp and Beit Jala, opposite Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood.
Palestinian news agency Ma'an said that the "rockets" were 1.5 meters long. IDF Central Command sources said that it was possible that Kassam rockets were being manufactured in the West Bank and particularly in Bethlehem, the base of a Tanzim terror cell that had fired mortar shells at the neighborhood of Gilo in recent years.
Palestinian intelligence head Tawfiq Tarawi said the so-called rockets were still in the early stage of production and had not yet been fitted with explosives.
Tarawi would not say whether any arrests had been made. He also declined to say who built them, but said the weapons resembled the rockets developed by Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
"This is not the first time. Two months ago, we found similar rockets and we destroyed them," he said. "This is unacceptable. We will not allow anyone to use such missiles because he will be destroying the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian towns," he added, referring to the likely Israeli military response a rocket attack would bring.
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