Israeli authorities have revealed a weapons smuggling network involving five Israeli soldiers in mandatory and reserve service, alongside Israeli civilians and several Syrians living near the border, according to a joint statement by the Israeli army and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the serious and organized crime unit, Shin Bet, and the Israeli army carried out a joint operation in October, during which several residents of the Galilee and the occupied Golan Heights were arrested, including five soldiers. They are suspected of involvement in a smuggling network that transferred weapons from the area of the village of Hadar in rural Quneitra province (southern Syria) into Israel.
Investigations indicate that the soldiers exploited their frequent crossings of the border as part of their military service to bring “varied and dangerous” weapons into Israel, before transferring them to criminal groups operating inside the country.
Among those arrested is a staff sergeant from the village of Yarka, located north east of the city of Acre in northern Israel, who is considered one of the main suspects in facilitating the smuggling operations.
During the collection of intelligence, it emerged that, in the days leading up to the network’s exposure, it had been working to smuggle a shipment larger than usual, including explosives, anti-tank rockets of the RPG type, assault rifles, and large quantities of ammunition.
A Shin Bet statement issued today said the detainees had planned to bring this shipment into Israel, where it was supposed to reach Rami Abu Shah, 49, from the town of Shefa Amr, who has a direct relationship with Rawad al Bassar, a 25-year-old Syrian involved in a weapons smuggling network.
According to the police, weapons that are sold on the Israeli market for tens of thousands of shekels, with the price of a rifle reaching up to 100,000 shekels, can be bought in Syria for relatively small sums, due to the “flood of weapons” spread across the country.
The investigation results, as reported by the newspaper Israel Hayom, indicate that the smuggling infrastructure began from the Syrian village of Hadar near the ceasefire line. The investigations show that the soldiers involved, all of them from the Druze community and serving in logistics units, exploited their authorization to access Hadar, where the Israeli army runs a humanitarian field hospital. This access provided the perfect cover for smuggling weapons.
According to the investigation, the network operated as follows:
- An Israeli truck driver enters the village of Hadar as part of a logistics convoy.
- At a certain point, he veers away from the convoy and stops at a bend in an area covered with shrubs.
- A Syrian man waiting at the location appears, jumps into the truck, and throws bags filled with weapons into it.
- The truck returns to the Golan Heights, where a soldier is waiting at one of the abandoned army posts.
- The soldier takes the bags and hands them over to a weapons dealer inside Israel.
Israeli security agencies estimate that some of the communication channels between Syrian smugglers and Israeli soldiers were formed during the July events in Suwayda (southern Syria), when several Druze from Israel crossed into Syria and met local smugglers, after which a series of deals began.
Image showing members of the weapons smuggling network from Syria to Israel, according to the Shin Bet, 19 November 2025 (Channel 12)
Earlier, on 23 October, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced that Israeli forces had carried out a surveillance and arrest operation on the summit of Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory, thwarting an attempt to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon.
Adraee said on his X account that Israeli forces were able to detect “suspicious” movements in the area, then arrested several suspects who were attempting to smuggle weapons.
He added at the time that the confiscated weapons were transferred to the competent authorities to continue interrogating the detainees, noting that the Israeli army continues its deployment in the area “to protect the security of the citizens of Israel, especially the residents of the Golan Heights.”
With the investigations concluded, Israeli authorities said that “serious” indictments will be filed tomorrow against all those involved, each according to his role in the smuggling network, which security agencies have described as one of the most sensitive cases in recent years.
Israel announces foiling of weapons smuggling from Syria to Lebanon