Israel has thwarted a Jordanian operation to smuggle weapons into Israel, the Israel Police and the IDF announced Sunday.
"On Thursday, April 18, 2019, at the end of a covert operation the detectives of the Israel Police Central Unit, together with IDF fighters prevented the smuggling of weapons from Jordan to Israel," the statement read, three days after it was cleared for publication.
Four individuals were said to have been arrested amid the operation. Two were said to have been waiting in vehicles nearby a gas station and were suspected of being instrumental in the transferring of weapons across the border, the statement said.
One suspect was identified as 25-year-old Bakka al-Garbiyeh.
The Israeli forces also seized two Toyota Corolla vehicles and a BMW.
"The Israeli Police will continue to work to locate weapons and expose criminals who endanger public safety until they are brought to justice," the statement continued.
The operation used a combination of "intelligence capabilities and technological means" that was undertaken by all the Central Command units and the IDF's Rifle Brigade.
In March of this year, two men in their 20's were sentenced in Jordan to ten years imprisonment for planning a terror attack on Israeli forces stationed along the border with the West Bank. The suspects were planning to commit the attack with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a pistol, the state security court in Amman ruled at the time.
One of those convicted planned "to carry out an armed terrorist operation … after [Trump's] decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem and over the abuses against Palestinians by the Israeli army," the ruling reportedly read.
The convicts admitted they were also ready to shoot at Jordanian authorities if they should interfere in the planned attack, the court found.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.
