Hundreds of illegal weapons like this one have been seized by Israel this year instead of reaching terrorists. Photo courtesy of ISA.
If it seems like intercepting illegal weapons has become a regular occurrence for Israel’s adept security forces, that’s because it is. In 2016 alone, more than 200 illegal weapons have been seized according to IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner’s Twitter feed.
The latest round of smuggling stopping occurred at the border with Jordan, where Israel apprehended 5 M-16 rifles and 20 handguns, which two Palestinians were attempting to sneak into the country. The IDF Spokesperson Twitter feed said the intercept prevents a “potential large-scale attack.”
The IDF Blog, which also covered the intercept, said the suspected Palestinian smugglers are from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), which was also the destination for the weapons according to the commander of the IDF battalion that caught the smugglers, Lt. Col. Yossi Benson.
Noting the weapons would have been sold to weapons dealers, Benson said, “If they had succeeded in smuggling the weapons across the border, they would have used the same route multiple times.”
Instead, Israel added to the long line of illegal guns that didn’t reach the hands of terrorists.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 20, 2016)