In late January, Israeli Security Forces captured four illegal arms dealers attempting to smuggle firearms in the Arab community of Israel. Israeli police recovered 53 firearms in this raid, in addition to the arrest of the arms dealers. In this article we’ll examine what was seized.
14 of the 53 firearms were rifles, and handguns made up the remaining 39. Media reports suggested 10 of the rifles were 7.62×39mm AKM-patterned self-loading rifles (including under-folders, and barrelled receivers), and four were 5.56×45mm M16-patterned self-loading rifles. Among the handguns recovered there are some easily recognizable firearms: Browning Hi-Power, Glock-pattern and Masada self-loading pistols. In addition to the firearms, police recovered hand grenades, and other small arms accessories (copies of what looks like East German pebble stocks make an appearance in the video documenting the firearms recovered). The issue with identifying the majority of the small arms from the raid is that they are wrapped in plastic.[i]
Fig.1.1. The stolen weapons captured by IDF and Israel Police on January 25, 2022 (Source: Israel Police)
There have, however, been several photos released by Israeli police of earlier seizures of weapons and below we can see a detailed photo of a selection of weapons taken in November 2021.
Fig. 1.2. Firearms confiscated in an Israeli police raid in Northern Israel (Source: Israel Police)
In the photograph above we can identify 18 AR-15/M16 patterned self-loading rifles, all appear to be chambered in 5.56×45mm, variants include two M16A1s, eight carbines with various after-market furniture and several M16A2 pattern rifles, an FN-MAG patterned general purpose machine gun, at least eight AKM-pattern rifles, including at least six with under-folding stocks – some of Chinese origin, there appears to be a .30-06 Browning Automatic Rifle, a G3 patterned 7.62×51mm self-loading rifle and two Uzi 9×19mm submachine guns. There is also a 5.56×45mm IWI Tavor X95. There are also a number of Hi-Power patterned pistols, a Glock 17 and several other polymer-frame self-loading pistols and one Nagant-pattern revolver.
Violent crime employing military firearms has risen drastically in the past few years. Weapons stolen from the Israeli military have been identified in 70 percent of the shooting incidents. Security measures have been implemented at bases, some of which have led to the prevention of more firearms entering civilian markets.
Fig.1.3. Stolen IDF M4 carbines recovered in 2018 (Source: Israeli Police)
The firearms recovered are representative of some of the military-grade firearms trickling into civilian black markets. The problem plaguing Israel is that stolen military firearms are becoming much more common. Israel has taken steps to curb this issue, however, data gathered points to possibly more than 400,000 illegal small arms and large amounts of military-grade explosives.[ii]
These recovery operations of weapons are insignificant in comparison to the number of firearms currently estimated to be circulating in Israel. On February 3rd, Israeli police tweeted that they had recovered 97 rifles and pistols, 22 grenades, 12 explosives, 7 explosive devices, all while arresting 222 suspects in the Northern District of the Israeli Police.
Publicized weapons seizures are beginning to convey the Israeli desire to reassure their citizens that their police forces are attempting to stop the bloodshed and proliferation of these arms. However, only time will tell whether the police operations will be able to recover the stolen weapons and prevent more from being lost.
If you enjoy our work here at Silah Report please consider supporting us on Patreon!
Sources:
[i] “IDF, Israel Police foil NIS 3 million weapons smuggling,” The Jerusalem Post, <https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-694523>
[ii] “70% of shooting attacks in Israel used stolen IDF weapons,” The Jerusalem Post, <https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/70-percent-of-shooting-attacks-in-israel-used-stolen-idf-weapons-689207>
“Police net biggest illegal arms haul in country’s history”, The Times of Israel, <https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-net-biggest-illegal-arms-haul-in-countrys-history/>
“Israeli police arrest 65 Arabs over illegal arms dealing”, BBC, <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-59223040>
“Two arrested over rifle stolen from IDF officer”, The Times of Israel, <https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-arrested-over-rifle-stolen-from-idf-officer/>
Hi
Dear Caleb,
Figure 1.3 may very well be stolen IDF arms, however, none of them are M4 carbines. Hard to tell with the quality of the photo, they may be reworked M16A1 rifles.
regards,
Paul