The assassination of a Fatah terrorist on Wednesday who helped Iran smuggle weapons into Judea and Samaria underscored the proliferation of illegal Palestinian weapons, experts told The Press Service of Israel.
Israel confirmed killing Khalil Hussein Khalil Al-Maqdah in an airstrike in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Sidon. The Israel Defense Forces said Maqdah and his brother, Mounir, had directed weapons smuggling and terror activity in Judea and Samaria on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“We see attempts to smuggle in not just rifles, but also explosive devices and anti-tank missiles. So far, the explosives used in the terror attacks in Judea and Samaria have been home-made. As awful as it is, the results of a terror attack that would use explosives of the kind that we catch here could be much more devastating,” an Israeli military officer speaking on background told The Press Service of Israel.
These weapons, the source explained, enter Jordan through Syria and Iraq. “There are lots of arms in these countries left over after the wars there, and there are enough people willing to sell them.” Along the Jordanian border, “there are villages that have been involved in smuggling for years.”