IDF seizes boat smuggling weapons through Dead Sea

Two Palestinians arrested in raid of small boat that sailed from Israel to Jordan to collect weapons; drug smuggling more common on Dead Sea.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Ak 47 Kalishnokov Dead Sea_311 (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson)
Ak 47 Kalishnokov Dead Sea_311
(photo credit: IDF Spokesperson)
Boats do not usually sail on the Dead Sea. But early Monday morning, the IDF and Israel Police stopped a small dinghy sailing across the salty waters from Jordan to Israel, packed with weaponry likely for Palestinian terrorist groups.
Two Palestinians were arrested aboard the small boat, which set sail from Israel late Sunday night and arrived on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. There, it was loaded with weaponry, turned around, and began sailing back to Israel.
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“When they reached the coast and pulled the boat onto the beach we came out of our ambushes and arrested them,” Col. Noah Mandel, commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade said Monday.
Mandel said the IDF received intelligence about the planned smuggling attempt several months ago.
The boat was caught loaded with 10 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles and 10 magazines filled with rounds.
“We believe that the weapons were supposed to go to Palestinian-terrorist groups in the West Bank,” Mandel said.
Weapons smuggling across the Dead Sea is considered rare, and Israel’s border with Jordan is mostly known for drug smuggling.
The attempt to smuggle weapons from Jordan via the Dead Sea is viewed in the IDF as a sign of the difficulty terrorist groups in the West Bank are encountering in their attempts to obtain quality weapons.