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Weapons bound for Hezbollah
Photo: Reuters
Defense Minister Ehud Barak inspecting weapons
Assaf Ravitz, Defense Ministry
Weapons seized
Photo: AP

IDF won't use seized arms, except for research

Weapons seized on Francop ship Wednesday destined for Hezbollah are meticulously stored in IDF warehouses in central Israel. Munitions center official says it took 32 trucks to transport hundreds of tons of weapons

The thousands of rockets, mortar shells and other weapons that were in Iran just 10 days ago and were seized on the Francop ship on Wednesday were transferred to IDF warehouses in central Israel.

 

"We loaded all the look on 32 trucks that made their way over night from Ashdod Port straight to two warehouses meant for their storage, and now all that is left is to sort and pack it all away in an organized manner," Lieutenant-Colonel Itzik Gershon, head of the IDF's munitions center's operations branch said.

 

Gershon said the military plans only to store the weapons, and will not use them except for research purposes.

 

Alongside the navy, the engineering corps and other operations bodies taking part in the Four Species Operation have employed dozens of ammunitions examiners from the munitions center, which belongs to the IDF Technology and Logistics Branch, in order to identify the hundreds of tons of weapons found on their way from Iran to Hezbollah, which were seized by the IDF.

 

The first part of the operation was completed by morning, with the hundreds of crates loaded on trucks on their way to the warehouses in central Israel. "Our main job was to examine the ammunition, inspect its features and organize the various weapons in a secure manner in order to minimize as much as possible the time it remains in a civilian port," Gershon said.


The Francop vessel (Photo: AP)

  

"Most of the transportation was carried out over night. We had prepared two large warehouses in advance, and we put the various items in there."

 

Gershon said that despite the large amount of weapons seized, it was decided not to recruit reserves troops. "Our regular troops worked around the clock, identified the items, marked them, and made sure that everything was done with the utmost caution."

 

The ammunitions inspectors had to examine the weapons, sometimes one at a time, and in other cases by sampling. "There is no doubt that everything was packed in a very organized manner, everything was in its place.

 

"It looked like a meticulous European packaging operation that ever surprised us a little bit with its accuracy," he said.

 

Gershon said the types of weapons were familiar, and some of them were very outdated, but the large amount was the main surprise.

 

The IDF does not plan to use the weapons, and only a small part of them will be used for research by professional IDF and defense establishment bodies. Most of the goods will remain in the warehouses.

 

Part of the loot seized from the Karin-A ship in 2002 is also stored at the warehouses, and has not been used. "Now that we have everything, all we have left to do is to organize it all in a secure fashion, we will have to pack part of the weapons over again, this is a process that will take some two weeks and then all this will behind us."

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.05.09, 15:29
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