IDF Reveals: The New Iranian Weapon That is Threatening Israel's Borders

The Israeli security establishment is intensely focused on curbing the rampant weapons smuggling across the Egyptian border, with assessments suggesting that a portion of the illicit arms entering the country may originate from hostile states, including Yemen and Iran.

The IDF’s 80th Division, operating in the area, reported a visible decline in weapon smuggling attempts in recent weeks, but security officials admit the effort is far from complete, labeling the flow of arms an "strategic threat" that must be treated as hostile terrorist activity.

The Drone Challenge and Strategic Threat

The methods used by the smugglers present a constant "learning competition" with the IDF. Authorities estimate there are between 100 and 300 active smugglers on the Israeli side of the border. These criminal networks utilize increasingly sophisticated drones, described as "giant" tools capable of carrying up to 80 kilograms (the weight of an adult), to transport arms over the long, approximately 200 km border. This aerial route allows smugglers to operate further away from the physical border, bypassing ground forces.

The military has provided recent data detailing their success:

It is within this seized cache that Israeli authorities believe some weapons originated from Yemen and Iran, transported through complex smuggling routes before reaching the Egyptian border.

The scale of the problem is immense; according to estimates, thousands of weapons have been smuggled into Israel via the Egyptian border over the past two years. These weapons are often transferred to Bedouin communities and then circulated deeper into Israel. The IDF warns that this unchecked influx of heavy weapons could escalate domestic violence, with a concern that the arms could eventually be turned against Israeli citizens.

Multi-System Response and Tactical Adjustments

In response to this strategic threat, the IDF has implemented a multi-agency operation involving the IDF, the Israel Police, and the Shin Bet. This integrated approach is crucial for achieving further success.

Tactical efforts by the 80th Division include:

The military notes that the large and small smuggling drones themselves are often purchased in Israel, not Egypt, where security controls on sales are more stringent. After being launched in Israel, the drone crosses the border, lands briefly about 2 km inside Egypt to pick up the load of weapons (or drugs) from Egyptian smugglers (often members of the same tribes), and then returns within minutes.

While the IDF observes an increase in interceptions and a reduction in the overall volume of smuggling attempts, and promises that there have been no drones flying over the nearby Israeli communities in the last month as there were frequently in the past, they concede that the long border means they cannot track every attempt. As one official stated, "We know how many smugglings we thwarted, not how many smugglings are carried out every day."

The IDF warns that failure to tackle this issue with a multi-system approach could mean that in the next internal security confrontation, the violence will be fought not with stones and sticks, but with the machine guns, rifles, and pistols now flooding the Arab sector within Israel.