A drone carrying 10 Glock pistols was intercepted by the IDF on Wednesday after it entered Israeli territory from Jordan, the IDF reported Thursday.
“Yesterday, IDF observation posts identified a drone that crossed into Israeli territory from the east in an attempt to smuggle weapons,” it said. “Following the identification, IDF troops intercepted the drone. The drone carried 10 firearms. The firearms were transferred to the security forces for further handling.”
This incident is important. It shows that the drone-smuggling threat is growing. It has been taking place on the Egyptian border and apparently has now spread to the Jordanian border.
Drones are sometimes used multiple times in an attempt to smuggle guns over the border. This seems to indicate that the reports of the drones that are stopped might just be the tip of the iceberg.
The overall threat remains to be fully discovered. Nevertheless, the IDF continues to report every week that it is intercepting drones.
On the Egyptian border, it appears that the drones are increasingly able to carry multiple M-16 rifles.
The drone smuggling issue is also increasingly being noticed abroad.
Gun violence become a reality in Arab communities in Israel
“The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons into the country using a drone,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported at the end of December. “The military said in a statement that troops brought down the drone overnight after it was detected by the air force crossing from the west into Israeli territory, carrying 20 M-16 rifles, a barrel and a stock for additional weapons.”
Twenty M-16s is a lot of rifles.
Meanwhile, gun violence is at an all-time high in Arab communities in Israel. This indicates that some of the guns are reaching Arab communities. They may also be fueling threats in the West Bank.
“Israeli security officials have voiced growing concern over what they describe as a surge in weapons smuggling into the country using drones from the borders with Jordan and Egypt,” Xinhua reported.
“Shin Bet domestic security agency chief David Zini called it an ‘ongoing catastrophe’ and a ‘strategic threat to Israel’ earlier this month,” the report said.
The same report quoted a KAN News report as saying there have been “tens of thousands” of drone incursions.
Last November, it was reported that the IDF’s 80th Division had intercepted drone smuggling from Egypt. The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF had stopped 130 drones last October.
The drone incidents appear to be rising, and the loads the drones can carry may also be increasing. There is no doubt that Israel takes this threat seriously.
It is also clear that more needs to be done in Jordan and Egypt to crack down on this problem. As these countries seek to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, perhaps they could help stop the drone gun-smuggling threat.
Israel has invested heavily in fences and more security along the Jordanian and Egyptian border in recent years. The drone threat, however, shows how one is always destined to plan for the “last war.”
The last threat was land invasions or land smuggling. Now, drones are taking over the air space and leading to a new type of threat.
Israel has the technology to track and identify the drones and take them down. There are many ways to bring them down, including jamming, shooting them, or even using lasers.
Israel’s borders with Egypt and Jordan are long, however, and the smugglers clearly know this and want to exploit this problem.
Drone threats increase exponentially. They are also always changing in their complexity and the ease that various enemies have to acquire this technology. As such, the threat is growing in unique ways.