Gaza rockets made from Israeli pipes - police

JERUSALEM, Mar 4 (Reuters) Most rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip last year were made of pipes smuggled from the Jewish state, an Israeli police spokesman said today.

Micky Rosenfeld, spokesman for the national police, said security agents had arrested a Gaza man last month suspected of purchasing pipes and other metal products from Israeli companies and selling them to militants for making rockets and shoulder-launched missiles.

The suspect, Amar Zak, 36, a metal merchant who worked at the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza, allegedly supplied piping to workshops in Gaza ''whose owners he knew were involved in manufacturing weapons from Hamas'', Rosenfeld said.

''Most of the raw materials used to make the rockets fired at Israel were supplied from Israel,'' the spokesman added in a written statement.

The crude rockets that Palestinian militants have fired from Gaza into southern Israel are made of metal piping filled with explosives. The ruling Hamas militant group was one of the first to use these rockets during a more-than-six-year uprising.

Hamas largely has adhered to a truce since late November, though other militant factions have continued shooting rockets sporadically, rarely causing any casualties.

Israel in the past has alleged that much of the weaponry smuggled into Gaza since Israel withdrew forces from the coastal strip in 2005 passed through the Gaza border with Egypt.

Human rights groups have protested against Israel's frequent closure of key crossings into Gaza, preventing the movement of people and goods.

REUTERS SP BST2308