2 Israelis charged for exporting bomb-making chemicals to PA-held West Bank without authorization

Two Israeli men are indicted on charges of weapons transactions and violating defense export controls for allegedly selling and transporting hundreds of tons of dual-use chemicals into the Palestinian Authority without authorization, and while making efforts to conceal their activities.

Yehezkel Moshe, 66, from Moshav Pedaya, is named as the first defendant, and Jihad Wazuz from East Jerusalem as the second.

The two allegedly formed a criminal conspiracy to import thousands of sacks of potassium nitrate, calcium, sulfur and other dual-use chemicals, which can be used by terror groups to make explosives.

According to the indictment, Moshe would divert, without permission, some of the chemicals he obtained as part of a franchise agreement he had with the Amir agricultural supplies company.

He would falsify the documentation for the chemicals to disguise his actions and prevent inspection authorities at the crossing points into the West Bank from identifying the dual-use items when they transported the goods.

Wazuz would bring his truck to Moshav Pedaya, load the chemicals onto it, and bring the cargo into the West Bank with the use of the fraudulent documentation. The chemicals were then sold to various agricultural supply stores in the West Bank “without the ability to oversee that the use of the chemicals would be for agricultural purposes alone.”

The indictment was filed with the Lod-Central District Court, and the State Attorney’s Office has requested that the two men be kept in custody until the end of legal proceedings against them.

The Military Advocate General’s Office intends to file indictments against Moshe and Wazuz’s accomplices, who are residents of the Palestinian Authority.