Did Mossad Help Tip off Egypt?

This story in Haaretz is headlined, "Mossad tip led to capture of Hezbollah cell in Sinai," though a careful reading of the story (by Yossi Melman, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff) says that foreign intelligence sources including Mossad and the CIA helped tip off the Egyptians to the Hizbullah operation that's causing so much of a flap in Egypt just now. Later in the story British MI6 and the German BND, and even Jordanian and Saudi intelligence receive mentions.

At least in the Haaretz story, but also in some of the news coming out of Egypt, there are hints that the operation is part of a new Hizbullah overseas reach in response to the assassination of Imad Mughniyya.

This story also raises a new possibility, citing unnamed Egyptian sources as stating that the Suez Canal was also a possible target of the group. Attacks on Israeli and Western tourists in Sinai are a sensitive enough issue for Cairo, since tourist revenue is critical and the "Sinai Riviera" around Sharm al-Sheikh is popular with Israeli tourists. But the Canal is Egypt's lifeblood. Is is not much wider than many big ships, and after both the 1956 war and the long closure from 1967 until after the Sinai I agreement, significant clearing operations were necessary before it could resume traffic. Sinking one ship in the Canal would cripple Egyptian revenues.

Yes, the report is in an Israeli paper, but a very credible one, and the Egyptians do seem to be hinting at these kinds of intentions. Clearly the Egyptians are in a full cry about Hizbullah. But if Mossad was directly involved (and as Haaretz notes, ‘Omar Suleiman has close links with his Israeli counterparts), Hizbullah will probably use this report to further try to tar Egypt as a collaborator in the siege of Gaza, as Nasrullah's remarks last Friday already set out to do. [UPDATE: I called it. It's now prominently featured on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV website.]