West German officials have confiscated a large quantity of arms and ammunition about to be shipped to a Lebanese port and apparently intended for El Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla organization. Customs officials said that pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition, radio apparatus and binoculars were discovered at the port of Hamburg as a result of a “tip off” they received on New Year’s Day.
West Germany maintains a strict embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East. It applies equally to Israel and the Arab states. Last April, customs authorities at Hamburg confiscated 3,000 pistols destined for Lebanon. In June they seized 54,000 rounds of ammunition already aboard a vessel bound for Arab ports. In July they arrested two Turkish members of an international arms smuggling ring and confiscated 30,000 rounds of ammunition.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
