Terror Funds, Weapons Confiscated in Overnight Sweeps

IDF soldiers overnight Monday seized weapons that were to be used in terror attacks. Soldiers, working with police, discovered a cache of weapons in the village of Beit Omar, near Chevron. Several suspects were arrested and the cache confiscated. In a statement, police said that such weapons were often used in terror attacks, and that security forces were determined to seize all weapons that were being held illegally by all people, in order to better protect all Israelis and residents of Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, who are also under threat by terrorists and criminals.

Also overnight Monday, Israeli forces seized tens of thousands of shekels in terror funds from Arabs in the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Aqraba, near Shechem. The money was part of payments made by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to the families of terrorists for committing terror acts against Israelis, officials said. Several arrests were made, as Arabs rioted when soldiers entered the city.

Overnight Monday, security officials said they arrested 19 wanted security suspects in other areas in Yehudah and Shomron. The suspects were wanted for participating in rioting and throwing stones and firebombs that endangered Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Several of the suspects were also charged with belonging to Hamas. All were being questioned on their activities by security forces.