Missiles, RPGs found stashed at Arab village school

Anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades were found stashed in a school and a kindergarten for special needs children in the Galilee village of Abu Sanaan, during a raid by police on Tuesday morning.

Pictures put out by police show three LAW missiles and four RPGs, all of which were recently stolen from IDF weapons depots. The arms were found in a drainage canal and a small pond on the ground of the school and kindergarten, along with raw explosives, grenades, and hundreds of assault rifle bullets.

Commander Michael Shifshak, head of the Northern Branch of the YAMAR investigative unit, told The Jerusalem Post that the weapons seized were somewhat out of the ordinary, but added that two weeks ago at a village not far away police seized over 50 grenades and several AK47 assault rifles.

The village is mixed Druse and Muslim Arab, and Shifshak said police don’t know who the guns belong to or who stole them, but said that it is possible that a Druse villager serving in the army stole the arms from an army depot.

He said that the raid was launched not long after the IDF reported the weapons stolen, and that through cooperation with the army they were able to pinpoint where the arms would most likely have been taken.

He added that weapons were intended for criminal use and that while they may have been intended for use in local feuds between rival clans, they could have easily been sold across Israel, with a single LAW missile retailing for around NIS 70,000 on the black market, and an assault rifle for around NIS 50k.

Shifshak said police “have placed a major emphasis on fighting the arms trade in the Arab sector, which poses a major threat to daily life.”