Israel’s Northern District Police on Monday night thwarted a major weapons smuggling attempt on the Lebanese border when it seized a shipment of 100 fragmentation grenades and two pistols that were allegedly intended to carry out terrorist attacks.
תצפיות צה”ל זיהו אמש חשודים שהתקרבו לגדר מגבול לבנון לשטח ישראל במרחב החטיבה המרחבית 769.
לוחמי צה”ל ושוטרי יג”ל (יחידת גבול לבנון) הוזנקו למרחב ואיתרו שני כלי נשק וכמאה רימוני יד >> pic.twitter.com/dnL8H0LvB2— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 26, 2022
During the evening, IDF observations identified suspicious movement near the border fence. A police force was rushed to the scene and a search yielded a duffle bag containing the weapons. Hezbollah is suspected of being involved in the transfer of weapons into Israeli territory. A military source noted that this was an unusual smuggling involving types of grenades not seen before in the area.
נתפסו 100 רימוני רסס בגבול לבנון, חשד שיועדו לפיגועים@rubih67
צילום: דוברות המשטרה pic.twitter.com/cN1eZbuWST— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 26, 2022
The Enhanced Tactical Multi-Purpose (ET-MP) grenade was designed in 2016 by engineers at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (CCDC-AC) at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. announced in 2016. The electronically fused grenade can be operated in either fragmentation or blast mode, which is selected just before use.
Israel Police said that recent smuggling operations that were thwarted revealed evidence of Hezbollah’s involvement, using Israeli criminals to bring weapons into Israel. Police say Hezbollah is delivering the weapons while ensuring that at least some are reserved for terrorist activity, in an effort to create an infrastructure for terrorist attacks in the future.
“The fact that fragmentation grenades have been seized––an unusual weapon that has not been seized so far––raises the suspicion that they were intended to carry out attacks against crowded civilian places,” Police said.
Since the beginning of the year, the police have thwarted the smuggling of 148 pistols, 23 rifles, and drugs with a cumulative value of millions of shekels.
