TEL AVIV – The IDF shut down three illegal workshops reportedly manufacturing guns near the West Bank town of Hebron Wednesday morning, the army said.
The raid, conducted in cooperation with the Shin Bet security agency, is part of an ongoing effort to curb the illegal weapons industry in the West Bank, the IDF spokesperson said.
The army confiscated machinery and gun parts but no arrests were made. Since the beginning of the year, 12 manufacturing workshops have been shut down by the IDF and over 100 guns have been confiscated.
Last year, soldiers shuttered 43 similar workshops and seized 450 guns.
The prices of illegal firearms have soared as a result of the effort, the aim of which is to prevent shooting attacks.
Also on Sunday in the West Bank town of Aqraba near Nablus, the IDF arrested a suspected Hamas operative and five other Palestinians suspected of involvement in “popular terrorism,” the term given to rock throwing and violent protests.
Meanwhile, as part of its own crackdown on illegal weapons, Palestinian security forces arrested three “dangerous fugitives” in the Hebron region, Palestinian independent news agency Ma’an reported.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian police said they were “three of the most dangerous fugitives, who stand accused of 60 different crimes including theft, fraud, shooting and terrifying citizens.”
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