Under cover of war: IDF warehouses are breached, and weapons reach criminals

An editorial analyzes two alarming phenomena in the rise of IDF weaponry use by criminal organizations: the use of LAU missiles and fragmentation grenades, and the use of drones for dropping charges. The author claims that massive thefts from IDF emergency warehouses, which began with their opening during the war, are the source of weapons reaching criminals, and that the military is unaware of the scale of thefts due to false reports of "use for combat purposes." It is further claimed that the police and other security bodies are lagging in understanding the drone threat and ways to deal with it.

An editorial published on Kan 11 warns of a worrying rise in the use of IDF weaponry by criminal organizations. The author points to two main phenomena: the first is the use of IDF LAU missiles, as seen this week in two incidents in Sajur and Jaljulia. According to him, massive thefts from IDF emergency warehouses, which began with the outbreak of the war, are the source of weapons reaching criminals. He estimates that the military is unaware of the scale of the thefts, as it is easy to report missing ammunition as "use for combat purposes." The second phenomenon is the use of drones to drop fragmentation grenades, as occurred this week in Nazareth. The author notes that access to fragmentation grenades has increased significantly: in 2023, 75 criminal incidents involving fragmentation grenades were recorded, and in 2024 the number jumped to 988. He adds that drones, cheap and accessible, make the threat more lethal. It is also revealed that an economic case in Lahav 433 uncovered the purchase of hundreds of large transport drones by companies in the Bedouin diaspora using fictitious invoices, but the drones themselves were not located. The author claims that the police, the military, and the Shin Bet are lagging in understanding the threat and ways to deal with it, and that the criminal use of this weaponry could also reach terrorist targets.