Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) agents, together with IDF forces of the Menashe Regional Brigade, seized 15 improvised assault rifles overnight in the Palestinian Arab village of Ya'bad, near Jenin in northern Samaria.

The location of the weapons stash was revealed during a Shin Bet interrogation of a Palestinian weapons manufacturer.

The successful mission was only the latest phase of an ongoing joint Shin Bet-IDF counter-terrorism operation in Samaria.

A similar raid as part of the same operation netted assault rifles, pistols and other weapons last month.

Several recent shooting attacks by Arab terrorists have been carried out using locally-manufactured automatic weapons, underlining the serious security threat posed by such illegal weapons traffickers.