Egypt says catches Palestinian with suicide belt

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - A Palestinian man wearing a suicide belt who planned to attack Israeli tourists has been caught after entering Egypt through a tunnel on the Gaza border, Egyptian police sources said on Wednesday.

"Under questioning he said that he intended to travel to south Sinai to carry out a suicide bombing at one of the villages or resorts frequented by large numbers of Israelis," one of the sources, who asked not to be named, said.

The arrest on the Egyptian side of the border town of Rafah on Tuesday led police to two Palestinian accomplices who had rented a flat in the town, the sources said.

Another 20 Palestinians and Egyptians, including Sinai Bedouin, were detained after further investigations.

Bombers have attacked south Sinai resorts three times in the past 2-1/2 years. Egyptian police have attributed the attacks to a group of Islamists who are from the Sinai Bedouin community and sympathetic toward the Palestinians.

The sources named the two accomplices as Hisham Abu al-Walid and Emad Abu al-Qassam. They did not give the name of the man caught wearing the suicide belt.

On Wednesday, Egyptian police found 240 old anti-tank mines and six artillery shells stashed in the mountains of central Sinai, a police source said.

Police suspect the owners planned to empty the ordnance, left over from 20th century wars, and smuggle the explosive material to Palestinian groups in the neighboring Gaza Strip, added the source, who asked not to be named.

No arrests were made, he said.

The Israeli government often complains about the smuggling of weapons, ammunition and explosives across the Egypt-Gaza border. Egypt says it does its best to stop it.

Last week police found boxes with around 18,000 bullets in a tunnel near the border with the Palestinian territories. Also this month they found rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades hidden in the sand on the same border.