Four Israeli soldiers were indicted Friday by military prosecutors on suspicion of trafficking weapons from Syria into Israel, the IDF confirmed Saturday, as part of an investigation into a weapons smuggling ring.
The indictments of the four soldiers came days after the Shin Bet security agency, IDF, and Israel Police announced that they had uncovered an arms trafficking ring in northern Israel, arresting 12 suspects — five IDF soldiers in the standing army and reserves, four Israeli civilians, and three Syrian nationals. The suspects were detained in the past month following an investigation into a network smuggling various weapons from Syria into Israel.
On Thursday, indictments were filed against the three Syrian and four Israeli civilians — all members of the Druze community — at the Nazareth District Court.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the IDF confirmed that four of the five detained soldiers were charged on Friday by the Military Prosecution at a military court.
Early next week, two more soldiers are set to be charged, the IDF said, one of whom is in custody. According to the army, the other is under house arrest and was not among the 12 initially arrested in the case.
The investigation into the smuggling ring was carried out jointly by the Shin Bet, the police’s International Crime Investigations Unit, and the IDF’s Military Police Investigatory Unit, in coordination with the State Attorney’s Office and Military Prosecution.
Weapons seized by IDF troops during operations in southern Syria, in a handout photo issued by the military on November 21, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to the Shin Bet, the soldiers crossed the border into Syria near the Druze town of Hader on several occasions and brought back weapons that were then handed over to criminal elements in northern Israel. Before they were arrested, the security agency said they “worked to bring in an unusually large and exceptional cache of weapons, including explosives, RPGs, assault rifles, and a large quantity of additional ammunition.”
According to prosecutors, the smuggling took place during this summer’s clashes between Syrian regime forces and Druze in the country’s south, when masses of Druze Israelis, mostly young men, poured into southern Syria to protect their brethren.
Prosecutors accused the four Druze Israelis and three Syrian nationals who were charged Thursday of “exploiting the conflict in Syria to smuggle weapons into Israel,” at times under the guise of “humanitarian activity.”
The alleged gun-running continued even after authorities had patched up Israel’s northern border and arrested dozens for crossing illegally, relying on the five soldiers who were arrested this week to bring the weapons across the border.
Druze in Israel protest near the Israeli-Syrian border fence in solidarity with Druze in Syria, July 16, 2025. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
The troops helped spirit the contraband on several occasions from Syrian territory to criminals in northern Israel, prosecutors said.
According to the initial indictments, Israeli suspects allegedly conspired to import a cache of army-grade weapons into Israel, transferring money to the Syrian defendants for them to purchase two RPG launchers, 10 RPG grenades, two assault rifles and two ammunition crates.
The Syrian defendants tried to find someone to transport the weapons, but were arrested before they could follow through with the plan.
The other indictment, filed against three Druze Israelis from Yarka, accused the defendants of conspiring with two soldiers and the same Syrian nationals to smuggle arms into Israel.
The exchange was allegedly carried out via an army truck driver who brought the weapons, including seven assault rifles and two handguns, to an IDF base in the Golan Heights, where they were picked up by the defendants.
Israeli soldiers on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, August 12, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon. Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (nine miles) deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces,” including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In October, the IDF said it busted two attempts to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon.
