CAIRO — The Hamas regime and its Palestinian militia allies were said to have ordered huge amounts of weapons from Libya.

Egyptian officials said security forces have captured a convoy that contained thousands of munitions and missiles bound for the Gaza Strip via the Sinai Peninsula.

The officials said the seizure was the largest since the revolt against the late Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi in March 2011.

“Most of the weapons were ordered by Gaza, with the others to be kept by Sinai Bedouins,” an official said.

On May 10, Egyptian security forces tracked and captured the convoy that left Libya and reached near the Mediterranean resort of Marsa Matrouh. Officials said the three-vehicle convoy contained 10,000 artillery shells, 40 surface-to-surface Katyusha-class rockets, 17 rocket-propelled grenade systems and an unspecified number of 120 mm mortars.

“We are talking about the highest-quality weapons that are not used against police forces,” an Egyptian source told the official Middle East News Agency. “This attests to preparations for battle with the Egyptian Army.”

The members of the convoy, all of whom were identified as Bedouins, did not resist the Egyptian troops. Officials said three Bedouins were arrested, two of them known smugglers from Rafah, a town divided between the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

Officials said Egypt has bolstered security along the border with Libya amid the assessment that Iran was financing arms shipments to the Gaza Strip. They said the post-Gadhafi government in Tripoli has been unable to stop the massive smuggling of weapons into Egypt.

“The border has long been infiltrated by migrants on both sides, but now it is being used for weapons,” the official said. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 05/11/12)