The IDF is troubled by the fact that shoulder-mounted missiles and mortars from the Gaza Strip may find their way to terrorists in Judea and Samaria, Israel Hayom reported. According to the report, the IDF has noticed an uptick in the use of weapons of Israeli origin that make their way into the hands of both criminal and terror organizations due to the large amount of arms in the Gaza Strip which are not properly monitored. The report states further that the war has led to an increase in the phenomena since the weapons are used more often and there insufficient oversight on them. As a result, there is a phenomenon of advanced weapons being obtained by organized crime, and there is a concern that such weapons will reach terror organizations as well. This is not just a theoretical concern. Last month, a LAW shoulder-mounted missile was launched at a house during a confrontation between criminals. Two months ago, police officers in the Northern District found 24 mortar shells hidden in the Golan moments before they were handed over to a criminal organization. The shells were suspected to have been modified into high-power explosives. The IDF is concerned about the flow of Israeli arms to organized crime, among other things since the weapons are liable to reach terrorists. Of late, the defense establishment has noticed a rise in attempts to transfer advanced and game-changing weapons to terror organizations. There is a fear that in addition to attempts to smuggle such arms from Jordan, terrorists will attempt to obtain them from Israel as well. While there is no concrete evidence that these advanced weapons have already reached terrorists in Judea and Samaria, the defense establishment's working assumption is stringent due to significant attempts by Iranian-backed terrorists to bring them into the area. The IDF Central Command, under the orders of Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, works intensively to prevent this dangerous phenomenon. One of the actions that are being considered to prevent it is to increase the intensity of security inspections at the checkpoints at the entrances to Judea and Samaria. This decision would be dramatic, both due to the need to build infrastructure, which is non-existent at some checkpoints, and also due to the traffic that would increase drastically at the checkpoints.
