On Monday, the Israeli Security Agency, comprising the army, police, and the Shin Bet, announced that they had seized a cache of weapons made in Iran within Arab community crime organizations. These weapons were reportedly en route to the West Bank to carry out armed attacks against Israeli targets. Ronen Bergman, a correspondent for both the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth and The New York Times, stated that these weapons are a result of years of deliberate neglect by the Israeli government.

Bergman elaborated that severe and largely undisclosed secrets surround this scandal. However, what can be reported is that since the 1990s, a horrific smuggling operation from Lebanon into Israel has been underway. Initially involving the smuggling of tons of light and heavy drugs (cannabis and heroin), these operations were linked to elements close to Hezbollah and facilitated by officers in the Israeli army, yet the authorities in Tel Aviv remained inactive in stopping them. Amid the Second Lebanon War, the commander of the Israeli army's tracker unit, Omar al-Heib, was arrested, tried, and convicted for drug smuggling, arms trafficking, and spying for Hezbollah, resulting in a 15-year prison sentence.

According to Bergman, drug trafficking led to significant wealth for organized crime gangs. Their greed escalated along with their profits as weapons began to flow in. These organizations operated similarly to how the Mafia did in the United States, and more. Arab citizens in Israel found themselves being killed in the streets as part of organized crime, with Israeli authorities again failing to take action. These weapons began reaching Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank for use in operations against Israeli soldiers and settlers. Investigations into several members of these groups revealed that Iran was behind these operations.

A joint statement from the army and Shin Bet indicated that "Iranian security agencies were involved in smuggling weapons, including advanced weapons originating from Iran, into the occupied West Bank with the intent of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets as retaliation for operations Israel carried out against them, as they believe." The statement also identified the Iranian entities responsible as “Unit 4000,” the special operations division of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence service, headed by Javad Ghafari, and the special operations unit of the Quds Force in Syrian territories, under the supervision of unit commander 804, Asghar Bagheri.

The statement continued that widespread arrests were conducted to interrogate Palestinian entities involved in executing armed operations against Israeli targets. During these investigations, information emerged about the current activities of Munir al-Maqdah, a Palestinian residing in Ain al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon, acting on behalf of Iran and Hezbollah, continuing to promote armed operations during this period. According to the statement, investigations and long-term operations against those involved revealed that Munir al-Maqdah had been recruiting entities in the West Bank for armed operations, seeking to smuggle Iranian weapons and fund the cells he had recruited through various means.

The statement concluded that a significant quantity of advanced weapons smuggled into Israel and the West Bank was seized, including explosive devices BTB15, Iranian anti-tank mines YM – 2, explosives, anti-tank shoulder missiles, RPG shells, rocket projectiles, 25 hand grenades, and 50 handguns.