Israel attacked convoy in Sudan in January: report

An Israeli fighter jet takes off from an air force base during a military drill in an undisclosed location in Israel May 1, 2007 in this picture released by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on May 2, 2007.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes attacked a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January to block a suspected arms delivery to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper's website quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying Israel carried out the attack, in which at least 30 people were killed, to stop weapons being transported to Gaza during its offensive against Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday that Israel acted "wherever we can" to strike at its enemies, but did not specifically mention the attack in Sudan.

"There's no point getting into details -- everyone can use his imagination. The fact is, whoever needs to know, knows. Whoever needs to know, knows there is no place where the state of Israel cannot act," the outgoing premier said.

The New York Times said U.S. officials who had access to classified information believed Iran was involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza. There had been intelligence reports that an operative with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort.

Israeli forces pounded Gaza for three weeks in January, to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants and destroy the smuggling tunnels they build under the border with Egypt.

Israel signed an agreement with the United States in January that pledged international efforts to choke off arms smuggling. It has accused Iran of being a main weapons supplier to Gaza.

Reports from Sudan quoted a lone survivor of the attack as saying two planes flew over the convoy then came back and shot up the "four or five" trucks.

(Reporting by Alan Elsner, Editing by Dean Yates)