Israel
24 August 2023

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, announced the arrest of four Arab Israelis suspected of smuggling “a large number of quality weapons”, including Iranian-made explosives, asserting that “Hizbollah worked to recruit and operate an infrastructure of smugglers in Israel for the purpose of distributing unusual illegal weapons to various parties, including criminal elements”. A senior official contended that “this affair once again illustrates the efforts of terror elements from Hizbollah and Iran to exploit the Arab citizens of Israel for activities against the state”. On August 27, the Israeli military elaborated on a July discovery of arms smuggling from Jordan, indicating that it had included “Iranian-made explosives”.

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