4 Arab Israelis arrested for 'obtaining arms from Hezbollah'

Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has said that four Arab Israeli citizens have been arrested in a joint operation with the police and the Israeli army over the possession of a large amount of "high quality" Iranian-made weapons including two explosive devices.

One of the men had been in contact with an operative of Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the agency said.

The suspects who were arrested in July were identified as Jalal Khursa, 28, Ahmed Issa, 30, and Muhammed Issa, 39, from Kafr Qasim, and Nuh Assam, 30, from Lod. They were indicted on Thursday on weapons offenses.

The security officials said the weapons were meant to be used to kill a rival gang leader as part of ongoing battles between crime gangs in Arab towns but were obtained using the smuggling routes of “terror organizations.”

The investigation revealed that Iran was arming criminal gangs with military-grade explosive devices, the agency added.

In a raid on a home in Lod, other Israelis who were intending to use one of the explosive devices were detained. The security services said their investigation revealed that a Hezbollah operative enlisted Israelis to establish and operate a smuggling route for weapons and to disseminate them to criminal gangs, among others.

A Shin Bet official said that “once again the efforts of Iran and its proxy the Hezbollah group attempted to use Israelis in their acts of aggression against Israel.”

"This also shows how fine the line is between criminal activity and terrorism," he added.