"Warning: Read manual before operating."

Abridged from source.

Source in title.

Designed in Israel, Made in Kurdistan, Smuggled via Jordan: The Mysterious Firearms Flooding Israel

Oded Yaron

Ha’aretz: 8 Jul 2026

SOURCE: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-07-08/ty-article-magazine/.premium/made-in-kurdistan-smuggled-via-jordan-the-mysterious-firearms-flooding-israel/0000019f-3cd1-d07c-af9f-fcdde51a0000

Their goal was to build a production line capable of manufacturing 3,000 assault rifles and thousands of Glock-style pistols every month for the Peshmerga, Iraqi Kurdistan's military forces. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is behind the weapons factory, maintains close political and economic ties with Iran.

The unusually large presence of DDG-manufactured weapons on illicit arms markets strongly suggests they are being produced specifically for illegal trafficking.

Shlomo Mofaz, director of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), says these smuggling networks blur the line between organized crime and terrorism. DDG weapons reach Israel through two primary routes. "Most of the DDG firearms I have seen are either offered on the illicit Iraqi market or smuggled to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank. I'm aware of two routes into Israel: the first is via the West Bank, where the handguns arrive from Jordan; the second is via Lebanon, where the handguns arrive from Syria.”

Experts interviewed by Haaretz agreed that the weapons were almost certainly copied from the Israeli models. The resemblance extends even to the warning engraved on the pistols: "Warning: Read manual before operating."

Weapons smuggled into Israel through the Jordan Valley in October 2022. Fifty of the 60 pistols seized were manufactured by DDG. Credit: Israel Police

The smuggling of Kurdistan-manufactured weapons peaked in 2022. But those firearms continue to circulate inside Israel, ending up in the hands of both terrorist groups and criminal organizations.

In February 2023, Elan Ganeles was murdered in a terrorist attack near the northern Dead Sea with a DDG pistol, as first reported by the Intelli Times blog. Last month, Israeli forces seized a DDG pistol in Tulkarm that had been copied from Bul Armory's Cherokee model. In March, another pistol of the same model was found in the possession of two suspects accused of attempting a gangland assassination in Tel Aviv's Tel Baruch neighborhood.

Hehe, gotta get one for your collection, Fred!