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Border Police arrest 5, seize weapons in Arab village overnight

Border police arrest five suspects and add to growing amount of illegal weaponry found in the Arab sector.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Officers of the Border Police raided a small Arab village Sunday night and arrested five suspects in possession of several firearms and other weaponry, Israeli security sources reported Monday.

Working according to intelligence information, undercover and uniformed units of the Jerusalem region entered the unnamed village and stopped a suspicious car. They found a Glock pistol and arrested the three men in the vehicle.

During the arrest, one undercover agent was lightly hurt and given medical attention on the spot.

The forces then searched a house, where they uncovered two Beretta pistols, a hunting rifle, ammunition, cartridges, bullet-proof vests, and night-vision equipment for weapons. Two more suspects were arrested.

A riot began while the forces were completing their operation. It was dispersed using anti-riot measures, and no other police were injured.

This is the latest in a string of operations the police have been carrying out to confiscate illegal weaponry in the Arab sector in an attempt to reduce the violence that has become an alarming problem. Over 100 Arabs in the country were murdered by criminals in 2021.

This month alone, a few hundred weapons and weapons parts have been uncovered by security forces, as well as thousands of bullets.

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On January 11, an undercover operation lasting a year ended with the arrest of 30 suspects from the Arab Israeli town of Kafr Kassem as well as in the Palestinian Authority, on charges of illegal weapons and drug smuggling. Dozens of massive weapons and drug buys were secretly taped by an agent who infiltrated the local crime scene.

On January 12, police raided an apartment in Lod, finding satchels full of illegal guns, assault rifles, fragmentation, gas and stun grenades and over 5,000 rounds of ammunition. The authorities suspect it belonged to criminal elements in the mixed Arab-Jewish city and opened an investigation.

Just last week, the IDF and Israel Police foiled an arms-smuggling attempt in the Jordan Valley. Four weapons dealers were caught on Route 90 in three cars, carrying 53 weapons with a street value of NIS3 million (approximately $1 milion).

Besides handguns, there were 10 Kalachnikov assault rifles and four M16s. The suspects came from eastern Jerusalem.

The Israeli government allocated NIS 150 million in its new budget to fighting crime in the Arab sector.