Palestinian Authority security forces began a major sweep of the entity’s communities Wednesday, hunting for unauthorized weapons ahead of the May 22-23 visit by U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
According to a report by Hebrew-language Channel 2 television news, the Palestinian Preventive Service (PPS) tracked down and seized more than 700 weapons in just one day.
The weapons, including assault rifles and machine guns, among them a number of homemade ‘Carlo Gustav’ semi-automatic machine guns, were taken to the Palestinian Authority capital city of Ramallah, where officials said they were to be destroyed.
Last year the improvised Carlo Gustav could be purchased on the street for just NIS 1,500, according to Channel 2; this year the price has skyrocketed to NIS 7,000 due to the constant seizure of weapons by ongoing search and capture operations by Israeli security forces.
On Tuesday, a shootout ensued during an IDF raid of a weapons factory near Shechem, as two lathes used to produce weapons were seized from the site by the IDF Golani Brigade 51st Battalion.
No injuries were reported and all IDF personnel returned safely to base, after turning over the illegal equipment to the appropriate personnel.