JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday it had arrested a French citizen, anemployee of France’s consulate in Jerusalem, on suspicion of using adiplomatic car to smuggle guns from the Islamist Hamas-controlled GazaStrip to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Held since Feb 15, Romain Franck is accused of moving a total of 70 pistolsand two assault rifles between the Palestinian territories on at least fiveoccasions, the Shin Bet security agency said after a gag order on the casewas lifted.Franck “acted for financial profit, on his own initiative and without theknowledge of his superiors,” a Shin Bet statement said. He is not believedto have also had an ideological motives such as support for Palestinianmilitants, a Shin Bet official told Reuters.“This is a very serious incident in which the immunity and privilegesgranted to foreign diplomatic missions in Israel were cynically exploitedto smuggle dozens of weapons that may be used for terrorist attacks againstIsraeli civilians and security forces,” the statement said.Franck, 23, was due to appear at a 1230 GMT Israeli court hearing at whichformal charges would be filed. His lawyer could not immediately be reachedfor comment on how Franck might plead.A Facebook page under the name Roman Franck, and carrying photographs thatlooked similar to the mugshot published by the Shin Bet, shows images ofthe young man against desert vistas.“Feeling good in Palestine,” says one caption.A Jan. 17 posting said the Facebook account-holder was “traveling toJerusalem starting to (sic) a new adventure.”A spokesman for the French Embassy in Tel Aviv described Franck as “amember of the consulate-general in Jerusalem” and said France was takingthe case seriously and cooperating with Israeli authorities.Franck was arrested along with a Palestinian from East Jerusalem employedas a security guard at the consulate as well as seven other suspects, theShin Bet said.It accused him of using a consulate-owned sports utility vehicle, whichenjoyed more cursory Israeli security checks due to its diplomatic status,to bring the factory-produced guns from Gaza to Palestinian arms dealers inthe West Bank.According to the Shin Bet statement, Franck received the guns from aPalestinian employed by the French Cultural Center in Gaza. It could notimmediately be reached for comment.Most countries keep their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, as well asconsulates in Jerusalem that handle diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians.Israel counts all of Jerusalem as its capital, a status not recognizedabroad although the United States, breaking with other world powers, plansto move its embassy in Israel to the city in May.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they seek toestablish in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. – Agencies