Shin Bet says it foiled Iranian attempt to smuggle advanced weapons to West Bank terror ops

The Shin Bet security agency reveals that it recently foiled an attempt by Iran to smuggle large amounts of advanced weapons to terror operatives in the West Bank to be used in attacks on Israeli targets.

The recently seized shipment — similar to those busted by the Shin Bet in March 2024 and November 2024 — included 29 Claymore-type explosive devices; four drones, including two explosive-laden; 15 anti-tank rockets, along with an RPG launcher and three RPGs; 20 hand grenades; 53 handguns; seven assault rifles; nine machine guns; and 750 bullets, according to the security agency.

The case began several months ago, when a weapons dealer was detained by IDF troops in the Ramallah area of the West Bank. The Shin Bet says its interrogation of the dealer led the security agency to weapon smugglers, and eventually to the shipment itself. The Shin Bet does not provide further details on where the shipment was captured.

According to the Shin Bet, behind the plot — and the previously foiled attempts — was Iran’s Unit 4000, the Special Operations Division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Intelligence Organization, headed by Jawad Ghafari, and the special operations unit of the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria, known as Unit 18840, which is subordinate to the head of Iran’s clandestine Unit 840, Asghar Bagheri.

Also involved in attempts to smuggle weapons from Iran to the West Bank were Salah al-Husseini and Muhammad Shuayb, two IRGC operatives who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in July, the Shin Bet says.

“This shipment, like its predecessors, is part of an ongoing Iranian effort to undermine security in the region by arming terror cells on the ground whose purpose is to carry out attacks against Israelis and IDF troops,” the Shin Bet adds.