Improvised and lethal

Salah Muhammad Al-Arouri, head of the Hamas headquarters that until recently operated in Turkey, spent years nurturing terrorist networks in Judea and Samaria from afar and has declared openly that his dream is to make "Hamas in the West Bank" capable of manufacturing its own rockets. His sights are set on the Gaza Strip "build and fire" model.

The Palestinian children photographed on the Temple Mount these past few months wearing Hamas uniforms and carrying toy guns also have a dream: to become shahids (martyrs) using real guns. Both these dreams are becoming a reality in the form of the "Carlo" machine gun and the many illegal workshops throughout Judea and Samaria that produce it.

In recent months, we've learned how common the Carlo has become, how easy it is to make, and how frequently it has been used in terrorist attacks. Since the beginning of 2016, the IDF has shut down 23 of these workshops and confiscated over 200 of the guns. The fact that about half of the weapons found were homemade and not standard does not detract from their lethal efficacy.

The terrorists who murdered Eitam and Naama Henkin used homemade Carlo assault rifles. The pair of terrorists who carried out the mass shooting at the Sarona complex in Tel Aviv that left four people dead also used homemade Carlo guns that had been built in workshops near Hebron. Border Police officer Hadar Cohen, who was shot and killed near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem in February, was shot by a terrorist who used a Palestinian-made assault rifle. A month later, when terrorists from Qabatiya, near Jenin, once again opened fire on Border Police at Damascus Gate, they too used the Carlo.

The Palestinians who manufacture bombs, grenades, and handguns in Judea and Samaria have also recently upped production of Carlo machine guns, named after the classic Swedish-made Carl Gustav rifle, whose design apparently inspired it. Often, the Carlo is made from parts of old weapons, sections of metal pipe -- usually irrigation pipes -- using a machine that molds metal and tin. It's not a newcomer on the local weapons scene.

For over 15 years, the Carlo has been used by criminals, and for about a decade it has been in frequent use by criminals from the Israeli Arab sector. Until a few years ago, it was most commonly used to fire off celebratory rounds at weddings. But the more expensive other types of weapons became, and the more authorities cracked down on weapon smuggling, the more common "independent" manufacture of the Carlo became, for purposes beyond simple crime. The black-market price of a single M16, Tabor, or AK-47 assault rifle can reach 50,000 shekels ($13,100). The Carlo is of poorer quality, but much cheaper, and can be procured for a mere 3,000 shekels (under $790).

Recently, following the IDF and Shin Bet security agency's diligent efforts across Judea and Samaria to close the workshops that build Carlos, the price for a single unit has gone up to about 5,000 shekels ($1,300). A good-quality Carlo is at least double that and can cost as much as 15,000 shekels ($3,900), five times the price of a "basic" Carlo, but still much cheaper than standard weapons.

For years, the police have been pressing the Shin Bet to take action against weapons workshops in Judea and Samaria, but the penny dropped only a few years ago. While the Shin Bet was aware of the potential damage homemade weapons could pose, these were generally classified as weapons used in criminal circles, which fall under the police's purview.

Storing guns at home

Haaretz military analyst Amos Harel recently wrote that in 2012, as part of an investigation against two weapons dealers from Lod, the police (assisted by the IDF) reached a weapons workshop in the village of Hawara, south of Nablus. It quickly became clear that the workshop, which "exported" guns to Israeli Arabs, too, was just the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of similar workshops in and around Hebron, the South Hebron Hills, Nablus, Jenin and Qalqilya were already in operation and manufacturing hundreds of weapons, many of which found their way into the hands of the terrorists who have committed the attacks of the past year. The Carlo has become the "weapon of the Third Intifada." The workshops that produce the upgraded model have outfitted the Carlo with a 9-millimeter bore and created ammunition to go along with it.

Private homes turn out lower-quality Carlos. Hadar Cohen was murdered by shots from a "basic" Carlo assault rifle, with a water pipe barrel partially constructed from an M16 clip. The soldiers and worshippers who were wounded near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron last November, some seriously, were shot with a homemade weapon that had been constructed by Hebron resident Ikram Faisal, who had learned how to make guns from instructional videos on the internet. Faisal placed his rifle, which had a silencer, on a windowsill of his home and took unobstructed sniper shots at the soldiers and worshippers.

The greater the Shin Bet and the IDF's success in curtailing weapons smuggling into Judea and Samaria -- whether stolen from Israel or smuggled in from Jordan and Sinai -- the faster the Carlo was turned out. After Cohen's murder, the Shin Bet stepped up its work and started supplying the IDF and the Israel Police with a steady stream of intelligence about workshops that were making homemade weapons. This resulted in near-weekly raids on workshops throughout Judea and Samaria. In the villages of Urif and Einabus near Nablus, security forces arrested four suspects from a single family and shut down four weapons manufacturing workshops. One was located in an innocent-looking picture framer's shop. Pieces of dismantled Carlo guns were discovered in a hiding place next to the shop. Another workshop was more sophisticated and was operated by computer.

Recently, three weapons manufacturing workshops were discovered in Dura in the South Hebron Hills. The three shops were indirectly related to the murder of Rabbi Michael Mark from Otniel. Similar workshops have also been discovered and shut down in Qalqilya in northern Samaria and the village of A-Sawahra near Jerusalem. In April, the IDF and the Israel Police raided the village of Abu Dis in east Jerusalem and closed down two workshops that produced pipe bombs and the raw materials for constructing bombs and ammunition. In Nablus, identified as a hotbed of illicit weapons production, workshops have also been found and shuttered. The same goes for the village of Yabed in northern Samaria.

Instead of taking away individual weapons, Israel's security forces are now focusing on locating weapons dealers, producers, and manufacturing sites. Security officials told Israel Hayom that the intelligence from the Shin Bet and other sources that lead to successful raids on weapons producers in the parts of Judea and Samaria that are under control of the Palestinian Authority prove the need to allow Israel continued freedom to operate in all parts of Judea and Samaria.

"If the Palestinian Authority were to demand that Israel stop or significantly cut back its operations in Area A, it wouldn't be possible to get to all the workshops or the places that make the weapons that are used in attacks or could be or are intended to be used," the sources said.

The security apparatus estimates that some 10,000 weapons -- handguns, rifles, and automatic assault rifles -- are currently being kept in Palestinian homes in Judea and Samaria and in east Jerusalem. Fatah and Hamas militias in refugee camps throughout Judea and Samaria are in possession of many weapons. In the Shuefat refugee camp to the east of Jerusalem, firearms are ubiquitous, used during weddings and other festivities, to shoot in the direction of the nearby Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, and against the police and Border Police forces that from time to time operate in the camp. The illegal arsenal in PA territory and in east Jerusalem also includes stolen weapons and weapons that were purchased from criminals. The price of an assault rifle on the Israeli black market ranges from 40,000 to 50,000 shekels ($10,500-$13,100). A handgun sells for about half that price, and a grenade goes for a few thousand shekels.

Intelligence about the weapons workshops comes from many different sources. A few months ago, two Palestinians were arrested near the city of Arad in the Negev Desert after police, acting on a tip, found a cache of weapons in the trunk of their car. This catch led to an interrogation, which revealed that the weapons had come from a workshop in the South Hebron Hills. In Hebron and Bethlehem, Palestinians were arrested while holding five hunting rifles and a handgun. Their subsequent interrogation also contributed to security forces' understanding of how the Palestinians were building homemade weapons. At Tapuach Junction, a Palestinian man was discovered to be carrying a rifle among his tools. Three months ago, police at A-Ram checkpoint arrested an Israeli Arab and a Palestinian, from Hizme and Anata respectively, who were carrying a homemade Carlo machine gun, as well as ammunition and a clip.

Carlos are also rife among Israeli Arabs. In 2014, 86 such weapons were confiscated in the Northern District of the Israel Police alone. Dozens more have been confiscated in the Southern District. Cooperation between Israeli Arab criminals and terrorist elements in Judea and Samaria is nothing unusual. On the Israeli side, the motive is financial profit, whereas the terrorists are promoted by nationalism.

Intelligence from Gaza to Judea and Samaria

The insufferable ease with which Palestinian or Israeli Arab terrorists can obtain weapons can be demonstrated by two cases.

In the first, from April, Mahdi Bassal, from Jadeidi in the western Galilee, paid 7,300 shekels ($1,900) for a homemade assault rifle and ammunition clip. The indictment against him says the terrorist cell of which he was a member intended to execute an attack at a synagogue in Acre, having been inspired by the November 2014 stabbing and shooting attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, in which five people were killed.

In the second, last November, armed residents of the Qalandiya refugee camp opened fire at Israeli security forces that had come to demolish the house of Mohammed Abu Shahin, who murdered Danny Gonen in a terrorist shooting near Dolev over a year earlier. Soldiers from the IDF's Duvdevan Unit, who were providing security for the demolition, returned fire and killed three of the shooters. The incident was accompanied by intense riots that included thrown Molotov cocktails and explosive devices, which also came off the Palestinian production line.

A few weeks prior to this incident, dozens of masked people carrying handguns and both homemade and standard weapons, such as M16s, were filmed near the house to be demolished. They belonged to Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Speaking to Channel 2's Ohad Ben Hamo, they promised (and carried out their promise) that the IDF would have to kill them to demolish the murderer's home. In a separate incident, security forces arrested Husam Ashab of Qalandiya, who according to his indictment had sold a Carlo to one of the two terrorists who shot at a bus in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot last March.

The security forces aren't resting on their laurels after their recent successes in locating and eliminating weapons manufacturing workshops. A very large quantity of weapons that were made, stolen or smuggled in are already out in the field. Aside from that, there is worrying intelligence that terrorist elements intend to produce not only assault rifles, but also rockets for use against Israel, as the Gaza Strip has done for years. This isn't a pipe dream. In 2006, there was a failed attempt to fire a rocket from Tulkarem at Bat Hefer, a community in the Sharon region of central Israel. In August 2014, the Shin Bet arrested 93 Hamas operatives suspected of establishing a terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria and planning to overthrow the Palestinian Authority government.

Aside from the rifles, handguns and ammunition the Hamas operatives were also found in possession of seven rocket launchers. A few years ago in the village of Betuniya, security forces found a production facility for Qassam rockets, and during the Second Intifada a few mortars were fired at Jerusalem's southern Gilo neighborhood from the Bethlehem area. During that same period, in that same area, other rockets that had been prepared to be shot at Gilo were found. Today, the security apparatus says, intelligence continues to be passed from the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria about how to make rockets.

So the issue isn't whether terrorists in the West Bank know how to manufacture rockets -- they do -- but rather whether they are capable of doing so.

In the meantime, the number of terrorist attacks continues to drop. The work by the security forces, including finding and closing weapons workshops, plays a part in that: Between April and July 2016, 32 serious terrorist attacks took place within the Green Line and in Judea and Samaria, compared to 102 similar attacks in the preceding four months and 100 attacks in October and November 2015 alone.

Still, 40 people have been murdered in the recent wave of terrorism and 425 wounded, 40 seriously -- many by weapons cobbled together from spare parts.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו