Israel desperate amid surge in anti-occupation shootouts

Israeli security forces are desperately searching for gun suppliers in the occupied West Bank they say are behind an upsurge in shooting attacks against the occupiers in al-Quds ('Jerusalem'), AFP quoted Israeli officials as saying Sunday.

"There's an increase in operations... trying to find where they're made," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP after the Shin Bet domestic security service announced the discovery of a cache of firearms in the West Bank.

"There are joint operations, coordination to prevent those types of weapons coming in. They're obviously coming in from the West Bank."

A Shin Bet statement said that in a joint operation with the army on Friday it found 15 locally produced weapons stored in the village of Yabad, near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

It also said that on March 1 in the city of Nablus, Israeli forces seized several weapons and lathes used in arms production.