Exclusive: Israel seizes vast Iran terror axis arsenal with surprising foreign origins

JERUSALEM: Fox News Digital gained rare access to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tzrifin Base in Central Israel, where a vast number of confiscated rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automated weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and other military firepower used by Hezbollah and Hamas are stored.

The seized arsenal of weapons — ranging in manufacturers from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia, China to homegrown producers in Lebanon and Gaza and even a Nazi-era gun —were part of the war machinery used by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israeli civilians and the IDF since Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF said Hezbollah also used weapons against Lebanese civilians. Hezbollah and Hamas — members of Iran’s so-called "axis of resistance." The terror groups have killed over 300 American citizens according to reports. 

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The Jewish state fought a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies at the height of the conflict. The remains of Iranian rockets litter the ground outside the weapons storage facility at Tzrifin for journalists to inspect.

Tehran fired rockets into civilian areas during the war, including large cities such as Tel Aviv and Be’ersheva. Just days after the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, the Islamic Republic fired a ballistic missile into Beersheba, causing injuries to 19 people.

To the ordinary eye, it is a Herculean challenge to decipher the small Nazi swastika emblem on the German World War 2-era MG-34 machine gun seized at a Hezbollah terrorist compound in Lebanon. But, for the Israeli military commander of the Captured Equipment Evacuation Unit, Lt. Col. (res.) Idan Sharon-Kettler, it is a run-of-the-mill exercise in weapons identification.

The German MG-34 has the "markings of an eagle carrying a swastika stamped on it," said Sharon-Ketler.

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Sharon-Kettler told Fox News Digital that the Nazi machine gun was used as "propaganda or for morale" of the Iranian regime-backed terrorists in Lebanon. A second Nazi-era assault rifle was confiscated from Hezbollah—the MP 44 (also termed StG 44).

Hamas and Hezbollah, both of whom are designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, employed sophisticated methods to transform vehicles into high-intensity offensive weapons. So-called dual-use technology (equipment that can be used for civilian and military purposes) is the bread and butter of Hamas and Hezbollah.

"Motorcycles like these took Israelis hostages," said Sharon-Kettler, as he showed an Egyptian Halawa Motors motorcycle that was captured in Israel on 10/7. The Iranian regime-backed Hamas terrorist movement killed over 1,200 people on 10/7, including more than 40 American citizens. Hamas took over 250 people hostage on the same day.

The IDF also captured rockets from Palestinian Islamic Jihad that were used as "propaganda dummies" during parades against Israel in Gaza.

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The IDF seized all-terrain vehicles (ATV) used by Hezbollah in Lebanon to hold rockets and terrorists. One captured ATV was designed to hold six rockets with launchers."You can sit on top of a hill and control a road that goes underneath. And with six anti-tank rockets you will stop almost any vehicle that passes," said Sharon-Kettler.

He said the ATVs provide great utility for Hezbollah in the rugged, hilly landscape of southern Lebanon.

Iranian-produced mortars were also on display at the IDF base. "We found hundreds" of mortars in Lebanon, said Sharon-Kettler. The IDF captured drones, including decay drones. Sharon-Kettler said some of the Hezbollah drones are used "to make noise" in order to "divert [IDF]resources."

According to Sharon-Kettler, the IDF captured "dozens" of Iranian regime-produced canons in south Lebanese villages, where Hezbollah’s core base exists. "In many houses the canons were pointing out of windows," said Sharon-Kettler. One cannon seized in Lebanon was of Russian origin.

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Hezbollah, like its counterpart Hamas in Gaza, embeds its terrorists in residential areas and civilian structures, including hospitals, schools and mosques. The IDF storage facility was packed with Russian-produced AK-47 automatic rifles and various versions of it.

The IDF captured more recent Russian AK-103 and AK-104 automatic rifles in southern Lebanon. "Light sniper rifles, some made in Iran, some Russian, are very common with Hezbollah and Hamas," said Sharon-Kettler.

Israel’s army also seized a highly decorated Turkish hunting rifle that was used by Hezbollah. The IDF found many highly sophisticated Austrian Steyr sniper rifles, including the Austrian Steyr HS .50 caliber sniper rifle, in possession of Hezbollah. Sharon-Kettler showed an Iranian replicated version of the Steyr sniper rifle.

The IDF collected submachine guns in Lebanon that were manufactured by China and Russia, as well as anti-tank launchers produced by Russia and Iran, said the IDF weapons expert.

Additional merchandise seized by the IDF includes all the trappings of a professional army and guerrilla terrorist forces. Well-crafted uniforms made in Syria, China and Lebanon along with helmets, anti-shrapnel vests, and medical kits are part of the IDF's confiscated war equipment.

Sharon-Kettler explained the reasons for Israel being in Lebanon. "Even after the agreement we had with the Lebanese army and government, once we entered Lebanon again, we kept finding everything that is here. For me, it means, if we are not doing the work to clean Lebanon from military entities targeting are civilians, nobody else is doing that."

The IDF commander referred to the November 2024 ceasefire agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel to cease the war between Jerusalem and the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Hezbollah joined Hamas in its war on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023

A State Department official recently told Fox News on background that the U.S.-led effort for Lebanon’s government to disarm Hezbollah and for a staged withdrawal of IDF troops from southern Lebanon will continue.

The next round of talks is scheduled for early September in Rome. The State Department official said, "We feel good about the trajectory" of the talks and added, "We are not naive about the difficulties. Hezbollah is trying to sabotage the process, and both Israel and Lebanon are democracies under domestic political stress. But the fact that the teams sat together, communicated directly, and generated options is itself a structural change."

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Spain stocks African enclave Ceuta with boosted security as Morocco monitors calls for second border rush

Spain and Morocco have beefed up security on both sides of the border in Spain's African enclave Ceuta as renewed calls circulate social media for Moroccan migrants to rush the border a second time after an initial mass migration event in July overwhelmed the city.

Soldiers patrolled the city's commercial and government buildings Friday while an enhanced police presence could be seen on Ceuta's main avenues, Reuters reported.

On the Moroccan side, security personnel dressed in all-black patrolled the beaches of Fnideq, one of the most prominent launching points from which migrants illegally entered Ceuta on July 30 as part of a mass migration event that saw over 70,000 people rush into Ceuta from Morocco.

The strengthened security followed calls on social media for Moroccans to again rush into Ceuta, and into Spain's other African enclave, Melilia, on Saturday.

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"The Ministry of the Interior has detected, during the last few days, the circulation of anonymous publications and messages on certain social networks inciting the organization of attempts at collective and illegal crossing to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, practices which carry serious risks to the safety of people and aim to instrumentalize migration issues in acts of incitement, which are criminalized by law," Morocco's Ministry of the Interior said in a statement posted to the country's state-affiliated news website MAP.

Morocco arrested multiple people who circulated the inciting statements, Interior Ministry spokesperson Rachid El Khalfi said.

The Interior Ministry also called on Spain to continue working to return the remaining Moroccan migrants in Ceuta back to the North African country.

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Of the more than 72,000 migrants who rushed the border, the vast majority have returned to Morocco, according to statements from Spain and Ceuta's government. About 5,000 remain, Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters Friday.

Spanish officials have been screening the remaining migrants and have processed roughly 500 asylum seekers' cases, rejecting the vast majority of them, Reuters reported.

Spain has also installed floating barriers in the waters where migrants had previously swam across.

At least 96 people died during the mass migration event.

Fox News Digital contacted the governments of Spain, Morocco and Ceuta for further comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Iran jails psychologist over Trump plea as regime demands he make Americans ‘look stupid’: family

FIRST ON FOX: An Iranian psychologist who publicly appealed to President Donald Trump to stand by Iranians protesting the Islamic Republic has been sentenced to seven months in prison, while his relatives say authorities tried to pressure him into recording a video insulting Trump and Americans. 

Seyed Ahmad Seyedabdollahi, a 32-year-old psychologist and counselor from Borujen who had been living in Tehran, posted an English-language video on Jan. 4 directly addressing Trump. In the video, reviewed by Fox News Digital, he urged the president to act quickly on his pledge to support Iranian protesters, saying young Iranians had trusted his words and that those who helped the Iranian people would be remembered.

""...To prove your good intentions to the Iranian people, either do something without saying anything or act very quickly on your words, because many young people trust what you say. And, as you probably know, many things are useless to people who are dead.I assure you that the Iranian nation remembers good deeds well, and they will try to repay their friends in the future."

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Ten days later, on Jan. 14, Seyedabdollahi was arrested at his father's home in Borujen, according to Iran International, Iran Wire, Harana human rights activist news agency, and the Hana Human Rights Organization. Hana reported that plainclothes agents confiscated phones and electronic equipment and that Seyedabdollahi was subsequently held in solitary confinement and at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence detention facility in Isfahan.

A relative of Seyedabdollahi told Fox News Digital that the video triggered sustained pressure from Iranian security authorities.

"Since that day, he has faced serious pressure from Iranian security authorities. He was arrested twice and subjected to repeated interrogations," the relative said. "During his detention, he spent extended periods in solitary confinement. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to seven months in prison, and in July 2026 he was transferred to prison to begin serving his sentence."

Branch One of the Borujen Revolutionary Court convicted Seyedabdollahi of "engaging in media activities against national security," sentenced him to seven months in prison and barred him from government and public services for five years, Iran International reported Aug. 6. He was detained again July 7 to begin serving the sentence and remains in Borujen Prison.

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Hana Human Rights Organization said he was denied contact with his family for 17 days following his first arrest and that his family initially did not know where he was being held. Iran International reported that he was denied access to a lawyer of his choosing during his detention and at times was prevented from communicating with his family.

Iranian authorities have also opened a second case against Seyedabdollahi on a charge translated as "propaganda against the establishment" or "propaganda against the system of the Islamic Republic." The case, opened in June, remains at the preliminary investigative stage, according to Hana.

Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital appear to detail the authorities' investigation of Seyedabdollahi and contain references to alleged foreign contacts and financial transactions involving the United States and Israel. His relative said interrogators accused him of being connected to the CIA and Mossad and of receiving money in exchange for making the video.

"They told him you are a member of the CIA and Mossad and you took money from them for this job," the relative said.

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The relative also alleged that Iranian authorities pressured Seyedabdollahi to record another video repudiating his original message and attacking Trump and Americans.

"He did not give in to numerous pressures to publish a clip that contradicted the first video," the relative said. "He was asked to sexually insult Trump and make the American people look stupid and ignorant so that we could broadcast your clip on the national media."

The relative further alleged that Seyedabdollahi endured solitary confinement and mistreatment during interrogations, and said he continues to face pressure in prison after refusing authorities' demands. Those allegations also could not be independently verified.

"His situation in Borujen Prison is not good because he has been out of solitary confinement for a few days, but sometimes they take him to solitary confinement under various pretexts," the relative said, adding that monitored telephone calls make it difficult for him to speak openly about his treatment.

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The relative said the five-year prohibition on public and government employment has compounded the punishment by threatening Seyedabdollahi's ability to work after his release.

"You understand the economic conditions of Iran. Now imagine that in this situation someone has been deprived of their social rights, i.e. job and income, and he is imprisoned," the relative said.

The relative described Seyedabdollahi as a psychologist and popular speaker with a following among young Iranians, and said he remained focused on those who suffered more severely during the government's crackdown.

In the brief period when he was free, the relative recalled him saying, "Don't feel weak. Our problems are insignificant compared to the thousands of people who have lost their lives."

Seyedabdollahi was one of several Iranians who directly appealed to Trump during January's nationwide protests. Iran International reported that he posted his video Jan. 4, two days after Trump warned Iranian authorities against firing on peaceful demonstrators. Trump again warned Tehran on Jan. 9 and on Jan. 13 urged Iranians to continue protesting, writing that "help is on its way."

Iran International reported that the crackdown resulted in mass arrests and cited the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency as saying more than 50,000 people were arrested during a period of just over six weeks. The outlet also reported that U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said at least 56 people had been executed on national-security-related charges since March 19, including 27 in cases linked to the January protests.

The Iranian mission to the U.N. declined to comment.

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Construction workers uncover $10 million in gold while building sewer under former brewery

Construction workers in Belgium this week uncovered $10.4 million in gold while building a new sewer below a former brewery, according to local police.

Police in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, a Flemish community outside Brussels, said the workers contacted them immediately about the find, which officers cataloged, then placed in a "high-security federal government vault."

An 18-year-old worker on the site named Kobe told VRT news he at first thought the gold pieces were 1 Euro coins.

"Our first reaction was actually disbelief, surprise. Of course, we didn't expect to find gold," Kobe said, adding that the workers had to remove a piece of foundation to lay down pipe for the sewerage.

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"When we did that, we suddenly saw something lying around," he said.

Project leader Mario said it was a "crazy feeling."

"They shouted, 'We found gold,'" he told the outlet of his workers. "I went to look and took the gold in my hands. We also continued to dig up new coins and bars. Only then did what we had found really dawn." 

He called his boss and then the police.

The construction workers don’t actually get to keep the gold. Under Belgian law, the rightful owner has the right to claim the gold within five years.

When asked if it had crossed his mind to keep it, Mario told VRT, "It's about so many coins and bars, that almost wouldn't be possible. Besides, it would also be theft."

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Kobe said he still hoped for a finder’s fee. "That would be nice."

The building is owned by an organization that provides welfare support to the Flemish community.

The director of the organization said he hoped the gold could be used to help with the "enormous need we experience daily," according to the BBC.

The local police warned treasure hunters against visiting the site, saying it’s a fenced-off construction site with "several dangerous pits" and that the gold has all been removed.

Police added, "We hope this treasure ends up in the right hands and that this unexpected discovery positively changes many lives!"

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Iran could unleash ‘kinetic’ response as US tightens economic containment, analyst warns

Iran could launch military strikes as early as this fall, targeting a list of high-value assets to shatter increasing U.S. economic sanctions, national security analysts warned Thursday.

The warning came as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, reported that two vessels were struck transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Arab Emirates' state-run WAM news agency.

ADNOC said there were no injuries, and the situation was under control, according to Reuters, as the UAE foreign ministry condemned the Iranian attacks.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Washington was preparing to take unprecedented economic action against Iran.

"Watch this ⁠space for more announcements ​coming next week because we ​are going to apply measures like we have never been seen in ​the history of economic ​isolation on a country," Bessent said in ‌an ⁠interview on Newsmax.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital Tehran is likely to step up military pressure as Washington intensifies sanctions.

"Come early fall, what we can expect is for them to kinetically push back against Trump's economic policy," Taleblu said. "If the president is re-embracing economic pressure as a management approach, just like we saw in 2019, then the regime will use kinetic pressure to try to find a way to break out of that economic containment."

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Ben Taleblu said shrinking oil revenues and the U.S. naval blockade could also drive Tehran to expand its target list across the region.

"This means they would embrace the kinetic tool, and that's how they would get out of the economic containment regime that the U.S. seems to be defaulting to want to put on them," Taleblu added. 

"I would say more attacks on ships, potentially more attacks on U.S. bases, potentially more attacks on Arab infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. And certainly the regime would create a tiered list of targets of what is of immediate value versus what has greater economic value versus what might lead to the U.S. directly or indirectly responding."

The warnings come amid a deadlock in talks between Washington and Tehran.

So far, there have been no discussions about extending the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement, a senior Iranian source told Reuters Aug. 12.

Tehran has insisted Washington return to the pact and set a definitive timeline to meet its obligations.

The interim memorandum of understanding, signed in June, called for the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts."

The agreement later unraveled, with Trump declaring July 7 the pact was "over."

Under the framework, both sides had an extendable 60-day window to negotiate a final agreement addressing key security concerns, including Iran’s nuclear program.

That deadline is Aug. 17, with control of the Strait of Hormuz remaining a major sticking point.

Hossein Taeb, the newly appointed head of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, said Thursday the Strait of Hormuz remains "under Iran's control and management."

His comments conflicted with Trump's assertion a day earlier that the U.S. held "total control" over the vital waterway.

"The regime is relying on tried and true tactics here, which is, you know, a knife in the back and a handshake in the front to many of America's traditional Gulf partners," Taleblu said. 

"It looks like Iranian escalation, Iranian diplomatic pressure, Iranian diplomatic finesse is trying to back the Trump administration into the MOU again.

"The regime definitely does not want to grant the Trump administration the optics of victory, and to that end, they're quite keen to hold on to the Strait of Hormuz."

Taleblu said Trump has described the sanctions-driven strategy as a "low-key" approach.

"These are high-impact tools," he concluded. "I think part of the escalation that we saw in the summer of 2019 — part of that past could be a prologue."

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Russia’s ‘Amazon’ in deep-strike Ukraine blitz, wiping billions from Putin-linked CEO

Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike campaign impacted Russia’s largest online retailer again Thursday, when a drone struck an oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire at a Wildberries facility, according to reports.

Wildberries, often described as "Russia’s Amazon," said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, Reuters reported.

The strike marked the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks affecting the e-commerce firm's sites across Russia that began July 18, when drones hit centers in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, killing seven and wounding more than 60, according to reports.

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Four days later, drones struck facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, sparking fires and injuring 15 people.

"We can call it ‘kinetic sanctions enforcement,’ or Ukraine’s adaptation of economic coercion into physical strikes," Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

"Kyiv’s goal is to steadily raise the cost and risk of sustaining Russia’s war economy," the former Ukrainian government advisor said, adding that the economic impact could be significant.

The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at 600 billion to 800 billion rubles ($6 billion to $8.5 billion), Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.

"With only 5% to 7% of sellers insured, the damage is cascading onto tens of thousands of small businesses and forcing Russia’s logistics sector to reprice wartime risk," Bondar said.

"Roughly 27% of Wildberries warehouse capacity is reportedly out of operation," she added.

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Beyond the financial toll, Bondar said the strikes carry a significant psychological impact.

"I’ve listened to videos recorded by witnesses, and reactions range from fear, shock and anger to disappointment in the capabilities of Russian air defenses," she said. "So, that effect is clearly being achieved."

Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim has since accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting a civilian company. In a July 31 video address, she described the strikes as a "terrorist attack."

"For nearly two weeks now, our company's warehouses have been under terrorist attack. Why our warehouses, of all places? Attacks against us are attacks against hundreds of millions of people in 10 countries at once," Kim said.

Kim claimed Wildberries entrepreneurs in Russia and partner countries, including China and Kazakhstan, had "suffered losses amounting to billions," arguing that the company itself not be held responsible for covering all the losses.

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"Merchants will start pricing Russian logistics risk into their business decisions," Bondar warned.

Kim said sellers from ten countries, including China, have suffered billions in losses, while Wildberries maintains it is not liable, which creates incentives to diversify away from the platform, shorten inventory cycles, demand prepayment and increase insurance costs.

Bondar said Kyiv views the retail giant’s sprawling supply chain through a military and economic lens.

"Kyiv assesses Wildberries warehouses as distribution nodes for dual-use goods, including body armor, helmets, fiber optic cable for FPV drones, and navigation components, as well as channels for sanctions circumvention," Bondar said.

"The strikes also retaliate for Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian logistics infrastructure, including the Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta networks."

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Kim is Russia’s richest woman, with Forbes estimating her fortune at roughly $7 billion in July.

"Kim matters to the Kremlin less as an individual than as an asset already absorbed into its clan system," Bondar said. "The current strikes expose the limits of her political protection. The Kremlin has remained largely silent, while Kim is negotiating tax deferrals rather than receiving compensation or air-defense protection from them.

"It sends the message to Russia’s business elite that proximity to power does not guarantee protection, and private businesses are expected to absorb the costs of war."

The attacks have also drawn scrutiny regarding Wildberries’ warehouse security procedures and a controversial new policy restricting workers’ cellphone use.

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"The smartphone ban is officially justified as an air-defense security measure, but the real concern appears to be information control," Bondar said.

"Employees were filming strikes and sharing footage in real time, making the damage and the war’s impact on ordinary Russians impossible to hide," she added. "The policy also exposes a serious vulnerability. Workers reportedly had their phones locked away during attacks, limiting their ability to call for help.

"Wildberries cannot harden its sprawling warehouses or provide air defense, so it is controlling the one thing it can — what gets recorded and seen."

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Poland arrests Russian allegedly hired to kill Ukrainian-American who was 'inconvenient to the Putin regime'

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed Thursday that his country arrested a Russian man hired by Moscow to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen who was "inconvenient to the Putin regime."

Tusk said the suspect was taken into custody Friday, with the alleged target being a man in Poland’s capital of Warsaw, according to a report from Reuters.

"Thanks to the truly brilliant action of our services ... we detained a Russian citizen recruited by Russian intelligence services," Tusk was quoted saying, adding that the target held both Ukrainian ‌and ⁠U.S. passports. "At the last minute, thanks to the action of the Internal Security Agency and the police, we managed to ⁠prevent this execution, this attack."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.

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Tusk also said Thursday that it was the first time that "someone on the order of Russia" sought to attack an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country, The Associated Press reported.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services, told the AP.

The news agency reported that it has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the Ukraine war that officials have linked to Russia. President Vladimir Putin claimed to the AP in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

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In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk said at the time that the killing had the hallmarks of a political assassination. He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it, but Polish officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.

Last year, French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s war.

Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist.

Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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