Head of Shin Bet warns of worsening arms smuggling via drones: Strategic threat

The head of Shin Bet, David Zini, warned of the worsening phenomenon of smuggling combat means into the occupied Palestinian territories via drones across the borders with Jordan and Egypt, describing it as a "continuing catastrophe" and considering it a "strategic threat".

These statements came during recent security deliberations, including an exceptional meeting held last week at the office of the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, with the participation of officials from Shin Bet, the police, and the army, alongside legal entities.

According to the data presented in those deliberations, tens of thousands of drone breaches were recorded in the occupation's airspace over the past year, transporting thousands of weapons, including firearms and explosives, alongside drugs and other criminal smuggling operations, according to the occupation's claims.

The data indicates that some of these drones are capable of carrying tens of kilograms, or even more than a hundred kilograms in some cases, and a security official said during one of the discussions: "We are four to five years late" in dealing with the phenomenon.

In recent times, the occupation police placed the primary responsibility for the file on the army, but in recent weeks, it was decided to transfer part of the responsibility for monitoring drones to the police, after the army reported that the intensity of tasks resulting from developments in Gaza and the north does not allow it to control this threat.

The Operations Department in the police began extensive work recently in preparation for taking on part of the responsibility for monitoring drones, and a police official said: "The army realized that its borders are penetrable, and the one who is supposed to monitor the drones is the army", adding: "Today, it is no longer possible to evade this issue, as it is worsening, but throughout the past period there was a vacuum, and no one took responsibility, and practically combat means entered Israel freely".

In the meeting held last week chaired by the Attorney General, the legal aspects of addressing the phenomenon were discussed, where representatives of the security agencies agreed that it constitutes one of the central threats, whether on the level of state security or on the criminal level, and according to data provided in several police and security deliberations in recent months, there are days when "dozens of drones cross the border without hindrance", as expressed by one of the sources participating in the discussions.

Two days ago, army forces detected an attempt to smuggle a drone carrying 40 pistols from the Jordanian border, and the weapons were seized, but the drone operators were not arrested, and a security official said: "There is great difficulty in arresting the operators, and there is hardly any possibility of knowing from where it is operated (the drone), and the main challenge now is to monitor all drones".

In an exceptional step, the Minister of Security in the occupation government, Yisrael Katz, signed an administrative detention order a week ago against a resident of the town of Be'er Hadaj in the Negev, suspected of being a central smuggler of combat means via drones across the southern borders.

The order was issued after information provided by Shin Bet regarding his involvement in smuggling combat means, "including unusual combat means or those with great capacity to endanger state security". Administrative detention was imposed on him "due to the inherent danger of his activity to state security", and nevertheless, the report quoted sources that the army and police seizures are "a drop in the ocean" compared to the size of the phenomenon, as described in one of the recent discussions.