IDF downs drone carrying rifles, ammo on Egypt border

The Israel Defense Forces troops shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and ammunition and crossed from Egyptian territory into the western Negev, the army said on Wednesday evening.

“Earlier today, IDF forces identified a drone that crossed from Egyptian territory into the territory of the State of Israel in the area of the Paran Brigade,” the military said in a statement posted to X.

The unmanned aerial vehicle “was shot down by the forces of the Caracal Battalion, who arrived at the scene and discovered four rifles, five cartridges and hundreds of bullets on the drone,” it added.

The smuggled weapons found on the UAV were transferred for further investigation, the IDF statement concluded.

Last month, the army thwarted two separate attempts to smuggle weapons from Sinai using drones. On Oct. 30, four rifles and a handgun were found after Paran Brigade soldiers downed a drone. The previous week, eight handguns, along with magazines, were discovered at a UAV crash site.

Israeli ground forces took control of Gaza’s border with Egypt in late May. At the time, the IDF described the 9-mile Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the frontier, as Hamas’s “lifeline,” through which the terrorist organization smuggled weapons and supplies into Gaza.

Jerusalem maintains that control of the corridor is critical to ensuring that Hamas does not rearm and rebuild via smuggling tunnels with Egypt. During its months-long operation in Rafah and along the border, the IDF has uncovered many tunnels running under the corridor to Sinai.

Israel’s Channel 14 News broadcaster cited residents of southern Israeli border towns as saying that they are “hearing sounds of digging at night and are certain that this is tunneling.” The security director (“ravshatz”) of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom told Channel 14 that the IDF had blocked more than 30 attempts to smuggle weapons via unmanned aerial vehicles.