Shin Bet says it foiled Iranian plan to smuggle advanced weapons to West Bank terrorists
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

The Shin Bet security agency reveals that it recently foiled attempts by Iran to smuggle large shipments of advanced weapons to terror operatives in the West Bank to be used to carry out attacks on Israeli targets.
According to the Shin Bet, behind the plot 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 unit 840, Asghar Bakri.

The plot was uncovered by the Shin Bet and IDF during the interrogations of detained Palestinians, who were suspected of planning terror attacks.
The investigation also revealed that a senior Fatah official, Munir Makdah, a resident of Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, was involved in the plans, the Shin Bet says.
Makdah, according to the Shin Bet, has been known to Israel for years as “working for Hezbollah and the IRGC, and continues to try and advance terror attacks these days.”

During the interrogation of the detained Palestinian suspects, the Shin Bet says it emerged that Makdah worked to recruit West Bank Palestinians to carry out terror attacks and smuggle in Iranian weapons, as well as fund them.
The Shin Bet says the IDF captured a “significant” amount of advanced arms from Iran that were smuggled into the West Bank, as part of the investigation into Makdah and the Iranian plot.
Among the weapons captured were two large BTB15 fragmentation bombs, five YM-2 anti-tank landmines with fuses, four M203 grenade launchers, 15 kilograms of C4 explosives, 10 kilograms of Semtex plastic explosives, 13 shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles, 15 RPG launchers, 16 RPG-7 rockets and propellent, 15 hand grenades, 33 M4 assault rifles and 50 handguns.
The Shin Bet says it and the IDF are working to locate additional Iranian weapons smuggled into the West Bank, as well as kill or capture terror cells recruited by Iranian operatives.
The agency says that it views Iran’s and its proxies’ attempts “with severity,” adding that it will “continue to carry out active measures at all times to monitor and thwart any activity that endangers the security of the State of Israel and its citizens, to expose and harm the Iranians’ efforts to carry out terror activities within Israel’s territory and will work to bring those involved to justice.”