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Israeli police find 450-year-old Torah during drug raid in Druze village

The pieces of the Torah scroll were handed over to the Antiquities Authority for further research and safekeeping.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Israeli police conducted a raid in the Druze village of Yarka on Monday and were surprised to recover sections of a 450-year-old Torah scroll.

Aided by a police dog, officers conducted a search on a house in the northern Israeli village on suspicion of illegal drugs and weapons.

In one of the bedrooms, police discovered what appeared to be very old sections from a Torah scroll.

Inspectors from the Israel Antiquities Authority were called to the scene and estimated that the manuscripts were around 450 years old.

The manuscripts appear to be a section from the book of Exodus describing the construction of the tabernacle and a section from the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy.

The pieces of the Torah scroll were handed over to the Antiquities Authority for further research and safekeeping.

In addition, police seized a quantity of marijuana divided into bags of around 200 grams, as well as M-16 rifle parts and ammunition.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the raid. They were identified as Druze residents of Yarka in their 20s and 50s respectively.

Also on Monday, police rescued a dog that was being kept in uninhabitable conditions at a house in Yarka.

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The dog was neglected and extremely underweight. It was taken to a local veterinarian for treatment.