Israel's interior security service Shin Bet revealed on Wednesday that it had thwarted early this week an attempt to smuggle explosives from the Gaza Strip into the West Bank via the Karni crossing, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

The report said that the Shin Bet forces, with the collaboration of Southern District Police, found six kg of TNT hidden in a iron cage as several Palestinians were managing to get them through the heavily guarded Karni crossing.

The explosives were supposed to be used for a terror attack in Israel, it added.

Israeli security forces also arrested three Israeli Arabs who were allegedly meant to receive the package on the Israeli side of the border and transport it to the West Bank, according to the report.

The three were released two days later, after the investigation found that they were not linked to the smuggling effort and had no knowledge of what was in the package.

But another 25-year-old man from West Bank town of Tulkarm was arrested at his home for alleged collecting the TNT once it reached Israel.

It is rare to find such explosive materials in the West Bank, where militants usually use home-made bombs.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tuesday just completed a six- day operation pinpointing tunnels for arms smuggling in the southern Gaza Strip.

IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said on Tuesday that forces had located entrances to 15 tunnels of the estimated more than 100 tunnels along the border.

Source: Xinhua