Table showing seizure of Arms And Ammunition From Arabs, 1936 - 1945 in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 594. Chapter XV: Law and Order : (b) Arms Traffic : Table 5

CHAPTER XV.

weapons of all descriptions were surrendered by the Arab community and destroyed. Seizures of illegal arms have since continued. The figures in respect of the Arab community for the period 1st July, 1936, to 31st December, 1945, are give.n in table 5. Seizures from Arabs have consisted mainly of relatively small hauls or individual captures. Among the largest were 9 rifles, 2 pistols and 568 cartridges from a gang in 1939 and 19 rifles and nearly 2,000 rounds of ammunition from a Hebron village in 1945.

Table 5.

Seizures OF Arms AND AMMUNITION FROM Arabs

Machine guns
Sub-machine guns
Pistols
Rifles
Bombs and Grenades

1937 - ' - 1240 1340 107 100 20,732 396

1938 - I 528 354 178 43 45,288 352

1939 - : •- 2546 757 323 . 124 87,853 181

19.0 - 1862 661 602 149 33,229 149

1941 468 $38 17 73 16,421 387

1942 - 12 281 339 78 73 4 6,383 496

1943 1 I 4 215 435 I 22 62 29.927 519

19H 1 7 139 337 18 47 45,278 ,1225

19*5 - 5 12s 222 31 I 25 12,079 i 210

Period

27. Where the Jews are concerned, there is ample evidence of planned arms smuggling before the war. Considerable ingenuity was displayed in the introduction of arms into the country. Notable examples were the discovery of rifles and ammunition concealed in compartments fitted into the bodies of safes and the disclosure in 1935 of large quantities of firearms and ammunition concealed in drums of imported cement. The smuggling of arms and ammunition into Palestine from adjacent areas during the war was organized on a wide scale. The extent of this traffic and the elaborate nature of the organization involved were shown in the trial in 19J3 of five participants, two British deserters and three Jews. The gang of which they formed part was known to have been responsible for the smuggling of 300 rifles and for the theft in Palestine of 27 mine cases containing high explosives, 227 rifles and 22 machine guns. Other cases revealed the smuggling or illegal acquisition of very large quantities of ammunition and explosives.

28. Apart from the smuggling of arms, the war provided both Arabs and Jews with many opportunities of acquiring arms from

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