As the Iron Swords war is being fought in Gaza, the Israel Police is continuing with the national campaign to fight against the violent crime in Israel’s Arab communities.
This is within the framework of Operation “Green Safe Route”, which has been in action in Israel for several years.
Just last week, many illegal weapons were seized in Arab communities, including pistols, rifles of various types, explosive charges, fireworks, grenades, grenade tube charges and many different types of ammunition.
Since the beginning of 2023, the police have made 2,227 different illegal weapons seizures in which, 1,387 guns, 258 assault rifles, 632 non-standard weapons (improvised, etc.), 1,797 ad hoc weapons (guns made from various parts, etc.), 66 shotguns, 544 grenades, 289 explosive devices, 4,071 fireworks kits, and 189,723 different types of ammunition.
And since operation Green Safe Route started, 1353 arrests have been made and 966 searches have been carried out.
Also, since the beginning of the year, 104 targets labelled by the police as major perpetrators of crime in Arab communities have been indicted on various crimes, 83 of whom are being held under arrest (without bail) at the request of the police and the prosecutor’s office until the end of the legal proceedings against them.
The head of the police intelligence division Deputy Chief Shmuel Sharvit: “Aside from the tasks of the Israel Police during the fighting, our determined fight against the main perpetrators of crime in Arab communities and the various crime phenomena continues.”
“Every seizure of an illegal weapon is the thwarting of the murderous shooting incident and the next attack,” he added. “We will continue a determined fight against crime with the aim of increasing the public’s sense of security and strengthening governance.”