Israelis are arming themselves: record demand

It has been reported that the number of applications for licenses to possess weapons in Israel has exceeded 190,000 since October 7.

The Calcalist news website wrote that more than 190,000 gun license applications have been submitted to the Ministry of National Security since the start of the war on October 7.

While it was noted in the news that the total number of license applications made in the first 10 months of 2023 exceeded 210 thousand, it was noted that this number was 42 thousand in 2022.

It has been noted that approximately 31 thousand licenses have been issued so far this year, and this figure will be close to 13 thousand in total in 2022.

It was reported that nearly 20,000 gun license applications were submitted in 2021, and approximately 10,000 of them obtained licenses.

The news also emphasized that Israeli arms companies “are having difficulty meeting demand and the entire production line has been working non-stop, even on weekends, for more than a month.”

ARMAMENT CAMPAIGN

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for his racist and discriminatory rhetoric against Palestinians, launched a campaign to arm Jewish civilians and settlers following the attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel on October 7 and continued attacks of Israel against Gaza for 38 days. he had accelerated.

Ben-Gvir, known for his Jewish supremacist politics, announced that they were arming tens of thousands of Israeli civilians.

Ben-Gvir, who claimed that Israel’s Firearms Section Directorate received hundreds of thousands of applications for personal weapons licenses, shared photos of gun distribution events he organized in illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank on his accounts social networks.

In these shots, Ben-Gvir was seen distributing weapons to Jewish settlers at tables and gun boxes where many American-made M16-type automatic rifles were lined up. (AA)