A big explosion hit Hizballah's main command HQ in South Lebanon, near Tayr Felsay east of the port town of Tyre, at 0800 Monday night, military sources report. Senior Lebanese sources said there were at least 8 people killed or injured in the blast. The command center was located in the residential compound of senior Hizballah operative Saeed Nasser.

Israel has demanded UNIFIL investigate its presence.

Under the terms of the truce which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizballah and UN Security Council resolution 1701, Hizballah was forbidden to maintain armed forces or weapons in South Lebanon. To avoid confirming their non-compliance with these terms, Hizballah sources Monday night leaked a story that old munitions left over from that conflict caused the blast.

This was the second explosion in four months of a large Hizballah arms dump in South Lebanon. The first blew up at Hirbet Salim in South Lebanon On July 25.

High-ranking Hamas officials in Gaza keep their sons, brothers, wives, cousins living in comfort in Cairo. Monday night, Oct. 12, Egypt's Mukhabarat (security service) began quietly rounding up hundreds of these Gazans and throwing them into jail for "questioning," sources report. The crackdown was ordered by intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman, who finally got fed up with Hamas and its stubborn refusal to sign a reconciliation accord with rival Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas. Egyptian sources are sure Iran and Syria are behind the Islamic extremists' non-cooperation.

Gen. Omar has spent long months in strenuous effort to bring the Palestinians together for a unity accord that would open the way to a unified delegation for negotiations with Israel. The latest signing date at the end of this month had to be cancelled for the umpteenth time after Hamas said its latest no was final.

President Hosni Mubarak then gave his intelligence minister permission to remove the gloves and start discreetly punishing the recalcitrant Islamic extremists where it hurt, i.e. their close kin.

Our Egyptian sources report that the Hamas community resident in Cairo includes senior military and political officials and businessmen, as well sons enrolled as students and other close family members. Neither Egypt nor Hamas has released word of the crackdown.

Conclusion:

Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem you have been listening to Palestine Today from the international Middle East Media Center, (www.IMEMC.org), this report has been brought to you by Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw-Haw.
IMEMC Audio Dept.
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