On Wednesday the police arrested a man in Petah Tikva, suspected of stealing a weapon from an IDF vehicle in Jaffa. The M4 weapon was apparently stolen after two soldiers left it in a military vehicle near a store in the city, while they went shopping.
According to the suspicion, a man got out of his vehicle, after following the soldiers, and stole the weapon. Large police forces arrived at the scene of the incident and began extensive searches in pursuit of suspects who fled the scene in a vehicle.
A short while later, police officers of the Central Tel Aviv Unit located the vehicle and one of the suspects in the Petah Tikva area. The weapon has not yet been located.
About two months ago, the State Attorney's Office submitted indictments to the District Court in Beer Sheva against Yosef Abu Arar (25) from Arara and Omar Muhammad (21) from Yata, who stole weapons from a military base where they worked.
According to the indictments, Abu Arar worked as a subcontractor for a sealing company that provides services to the IDF. A month earlier, Abu Arar and Muhammad, who is residing in Israel without a permit, worked at a paratrooper base in the south.
In the course of their work, the two broke into the staff quarters at the base and stole an M-4 type weapon from the room of one of the officers. They hid the weapon in Abu Arar's vehicle and drove away from the base with the weapon in their possession.
The two were charged with weapon’s offenses (carrying and transporting), theft of weapons and using a vehicle to commit a crime. Abu Arar was also charged with the offenses of housing and illegal employment, and Mohammed was charged with the offense of illegal stay.