IDF raids two Palestinian gun workshops, confiscates lathes

IDF soldiers raided two workshops in the West Bank early Thursday morning that the army said were used to manufacture firearms.

Troops from the Etzion and Yehuda brigades, working with the Shin Bet security service, sealed the workshops in Hebron and confiscated five lathes belonging to the two Palestinians, a father and son, who owned one of the shops.

For the past year and a half, the IDF has been cracking down on the black market for guns in the West Bank. The army has focused its attention on local weapons production, specifically the manufacturing of Carlo-style submachine guns, a jury-rigged gun cobbled together out of water pipes and parts from other guns.

Workshop for manufacturing illegal weapons in Hebron which was sealed by IDF on November 2, 2017. (IDF)

Elsewhere in the West Bank, the army arrested 15 wanted men, including 11 who are suspected of involvement of throwing rocks or taking part in violent protests, according to the military.

Also Thursday, two teenagers were arrested in East Jerusalem on suspicion of throwing Molotov cocktails at a parked car.

The two, aged 18 and 19, from the neighborhood of A-Tur, allegedly threw the firebombs at an Israeli vehicle that was parked in the area. There were no injuries but the car was damaged.