Police arrived to arrest someone else - and uncovered an illegal resident with a Glock and hundreds of bullets

The State Attorney's Office filed an indictment today, Sunday, at the Central District Court in Lod against 23-year-old Qasi Samha, a resident of the village of Jius in the Qalqilya district. On the surface, he worked as a painter at a furniture paint shop in Qalansawe. However, according to the indictment, behind the work at the paint shop lay a completely different story: a forged Israeli ID card with his picture, a Glock pistol hidden inside a paint bucket, hundreds of bullets, and an attempt to convert the pistol to automatic.

According to the indictment filed by Adv. Roi Reis from the Central District Attorney's Office, Samha never had a permit to enter or work in Israel. Despite this, starting in 2025, he was employed as a painter at a furniture paint shop in Qalansawe by an Israeli resident of the city. For the purpose of the work, a living space adjacent to the paint shop was made available to him, and according to the state, he was the only worker and tenant at the place.

To work in Israel, the prosecution claims, Samha used a forged ID card of an Israeli citizen, a resident of Jaljulia. Samha's picture was integrated into the card, and he presented it to his employer as if it were his own. According to the evidence, the employer even saved his number in his phone under the name of the same Israeli citizen he was impersonating.

The Glock in the paint bucket - and the attempt to make it automatic

According to the indictment, this was not a one-time entry into Israel. From time to time, Samha went on vacations, after which he would infiltrate Israel again and return to Qalansawe. At the same time, in the house he received for his work, he used to host and lodge other Palestinians who were in Israel without a permit, sometimes for days.

But the central part of the investigation concerns what was kept inside the house. Some time before August 9, according to the indictment, Samha carried a semi-automatic Glock 19, 5th generation, 9mm caliber pistol, along with a magazine and bullets. The prosecution claims that he tried to assemble an improvised selector switch on the pistol intended to make it automatic, but when he fired after installing it, only a single bullet was discharged.

On the night of August 9, according to the indictment, the pistol was already hidden in the house in a different way. Samha carried it inside a black sock, wrapped in blue disposable rubber gloves, and placed it inside a paint bucket without a lid. In the same bucket were also another magazine, 100 9mm bullets, and 50 7.62mm bullets, as well as the improvised selector switch.

And what did Samha do with all this? According to the prosecution, he documented the weapon himself. Using his phone, Samha photographed the selector switch and the paint bucket containing the pistol, magazines, and ammunition. He sent the photos via WhatsApp to a person whose identity is unknown to the prosecution, told him about the shooting and the failure in the attempt to assemble the selector, and consulted with him on how to install it in a way that would work.

Police arrived to arrest someone else entirely

A day later, on August 10 around 20:00, police forces arrived at the compound. However, they did not arrive to arrest Samha at all. The police arrived with an arrest warrant for another person, suspected of weapons offenses, who according to the state was one of the illegal residents that Samha hosted and lodged in the house.

As soon as Samha noticed the forces, according to the indictment, he took the paint bucket containing the weapon and ammunition and fled by running through an improvised opening in the fence surrounding the compound. At this stage, there were also 120 additional 5.56mm bullets in the bucket - for a total of 270 bullets of three different calibers.

During the escape, Samha threw the closed bucket outside the compound in an attempt to hide it. However, the escape was short. The police caught him immediately after he left the compound, overpowered him, and handcuffed him. Shortly thereafter, the bucket was also located in the place where it was thrown, and inside it were the pistol, magazines, bullets, and the selector switch.

The photo he took - became evidence against him

In the detention request filed alongside the indictment, the prosecution details a series of evidence that it claims links Samha to the weapon, including body camera footage and drone documentation of the escape, the phone seized on his person, and the photos found on it.

One of the unusual pieces of evidence comes from a photo Samha took himself. According to the state, one of the shots shows his hand, and fingerprints were extracted from the photo that matched his prints. The location data and the tiles appearing in the photos also matched, according to the investigators, the house where he lived. Samha's DNA was also found on the sock that wrapped the pistol.

In the phone, the WhatsApp correspondence was also found, in which the photos of the weapon and the selector switch were sent, along with the consultation on how to assemble it. As for the ID card, the forged card was seized in the house and a photo of it was found on Samha's phone. The Israeli citizen whose details appeared on the card filed a complaint.

Denied the connection to the weapon and the forged identity

The prosecution claims that during his interrogation, Samha denied his identity as the person seen fleeing the compound, denied any connection to the weapon and the photos found on the phone, as well as to the forged ID card.

The indictment charges Samha with offenses of carrying a weapon, carrying a weapon accessory and ammunition, illegal entry and stay in Israel, use of a forged document with the intent to obtain something through it, impersonation, obstruction of justice, and illegal lodging under aggravating circumstances.

Simultaneously with the filing of the indictment, the Central District Attorney's Office requested to order his detention until the end of the proceedings. According to the prosecution, the severity of the weapons offenses, his status as a resident of Judea and Samaria, the use of a forged identity, and the attempt to throw away the weapon bucket and hide it create both danger and a fear of flight and obstruction of the judicial process.