Carlo (submachine gun)

Lore & Background

Throughout the 2000s, the Carlo was primarily made and used by Arab-Israeli gangs as a cheaper alternative to the AK-47 and the Tavor. Palestinian militants had started using it by 2014, as the IDF reported netting several Carlos in a raid on a Nablus arms cache. It gained widespread use during the 2015–2016 wave of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, used in up to 68 attacks according to The Guardian.

Reader's Guide

The Carlo's significance lies in its role as a low-cost, easily manufactured weapon that has enabled both militant and criminal violence across multiple regions. Its homemade nature makes it affordable on the black market, but it is inaccurate and prone to jamming and misfiring. Produced in underground workshops with second-hand parts, specifications are not uniform. Initially made with scrapped pipes, more recent makes have used rifled barrels, raising the price from under $800 to nearly $4,000. Most parts are cannibalized from lost or stolen M4-type rifles and magazines, or incorporate airsoft or paintball rifle parts. The weapon is typically chambered for 9×19mm, though other calibers exist. It can only fire in full auto in an open bolt, with the ejection port on the left and charging handle on the right. Its compact design allows concealment on the left side of clothing for a right-handed draw. Notable attacks include the 2017 Temple Mount shooting and the 2025 Ramot Junction shooting.

Did You Know?

• The Carlo is also referred to as the Carl Gustav in Arabic.
• It was used in up to 68 attacks during the 2015–2016 wave of violence.
• Some variants incorporate parts of airsoft or paintball rifles.
• The weapon can only fire in full auto in an open bolt configuration.

Origins & Underground Manufacturing

The Carlo emerged from small workshops operating within the Palestinian territories, born out of necessity rather than industrial design. Its name and general silhouette draw from the Swedish Carl Gustaf m/45 and the Egyptian Port Said variant, though in practice the resemblance between the two is often superficial at best. What defines the weapon is its fundamentally improvised character: early examples were partially constructed from scrapped pipes, while later iterations incorporated second-hand gun components sourced from lost or stolen M4-type rifles, IDF training areas, and even civilian homes. Some builders repurposed rifle accessories available through online retailers, and in at least one documented case, parts from airsoft or paintball rifles found their way into the final assembly. This patchwork approach means no two specimens share identical specifications. The manufacturing process demands minimal skill or specialized equipment, keeping production costs remarkably low—early versions traded for under eight hundred US dollars, while more refined builds with rifled barrels pushed the price toward four thousand.

Operational Timeline & Notable Incidents

The Carlo's operational history stretches back through the 2000s, when it was primarily a tool of Arab-Israeli criminal gangs seeking a budget-friendly substitute for the AK-47 and the Tavor. Palestinian militant groups did not begin fielding the weapon in any meaningful way until around 2014, when Israeli forces recovered several examples during a raid on an arms cache near Nablus. The weapon's profile surged dramatically during the 2015–2016 wave of violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; reporting from The Guardian indicated the Carlo featured in as many as sixty-eight separate attacks across that period. Two incidents stand out in public memory: the killing of Hadar Cohen and the June 2016 shooting in Tel Aviv. The Carlo also appeared in the 2017 Temple Mount shooting, in which two Israeli Druze officers, Haiel Sitawe and Kamil Shnaan, lost their lives. Most recently, the two perpetrators of the 2025 Ramot Junction shooting employed Carlos, killing six people before both were themselves shot dead.

Global Proliferation Beyond the Levant

Although the Carlo is most closely associated with Palestinian militant organizations—specifically Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades—its reach extends far beyond the Levant. The weapon's low production cost and the absence of any meaningful export controls have made it a staple of the black market, where it is purchased not only by Palestinians targeting Israeli forces but also by Arab-Israeli criminal groups. Its appeal to organized crime has carried it into an unexpectedly wide geographic footprint. The weapon has surfaced in criminal networks across South America, with documented presence in both Brazil and Chile, as well as in Croatia, Ukraine, Italy, various Caribbean nations, and even Australia. This global dispersal underscores a key characteristic of the Carlo: because it is assembled in small, decentralized workshops rather than a single factory, no central authority can trace, regulate, or halt its distribution. The same simplicity that makes it cheap to build also makes it nearly impossible to control once it enters the illicit trade.

Technical Profile & Practical Limitations

The Carlo is designed for concealment and compactness, typically carried on the left side of a jacket and drawn with the right hand. Mechanically, every variant operates exclusively in full-auto mode from an open-bolt configuration, with the ejection port positioned on the left and the charging handle on the right. The most common chambering is 9×19mm, but builders have also produced versions for .22 LR, .32 ACP, 9×18mm, and even 5.56×45mm—though the latter is widely considered implausible, as seized samples revealed that 5.56 NATO magazines had been modified to accept Uzi magazines or pistol-based feeds. Magazine configurations vary widely: some builds use M16-style pistol grips paired with Uzi-based twenty-five-round magazines, others are based on the MP5 or AK platforms, and one seized example featured a STANAG magazine concealing a 9×19 Uzi or homemade feed. Despite this variety, the Carlo suffers from chronic inaccuracy, a tendency to jam, and a persistent risk of misfiring—trade-offs inherent to its improvised, non-standardized construction.

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