Madrid - The Basque separatist group ETA has sold part of its stolen explosives stockpile to the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas for use in attacks against Israeli targets, a Spanish newspaper reported yesterday. The deal was reached in October in northern Italy and resulted from regular contacts between the two groups, the daily El Mundo said, citing sources from within the French wing of the radical Basque independence movement.
The dynamite was part of an eight-tonne load of explosives stolen by ETA from a depot in France's Brittany region in 1999, but it was not known how much was sold to Hamas or what price it paid, El Mundo said. The sale was made after a Hamas representative told ETA the it urgently needed explosives, the report said.