Two shipping containers have been confiscated in Afula after the discovery of an unprecedented amount of tasers, machetes and commando knives, fireworks, and other “cold weapons,”
The containers were both shipped from China to Ashdod port. Whilst both were manifested to contain Christmas Lights, they instead the contained an enormous stockpile of weapons, which were, according to the local police, headed for Arab rioters in East Jerusalem.
Both containers were picked up in Ashdod by three Israeli Arabs. They began to unpack the containers in Afulu – this is where they were arrested along with the truck drivers and the warehouse owners.
Officials have deemed this seizure of illicit fireworks as the biggest ever in Israel.According to police, the enormous stockpile of weapons was intended to supply Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who have thrown firecrackers, Molotov cocktails and stones in ongoing clashes with police amid rising tensions in the capital.
“The containers were intended for a resident of east Jerusalem from Beit Hanina. We carried out covert activities in order to identify the container’s contents, and it turned out that one of the containers held hundreds of thousands of firecrackers and fireworks, and a second container, 16,000 cold weapons, like commando knives, many tasers, brass knuckles, machetes and swords,” Rafi Gabay, Director of Customs at the Port of Ashdod said.
