Occupied Jerusalem

- Immediately after the "Bnei Brak" commando operation in the suburbs of Tel Aviv at the end of last March, and under the slogan "Guardians of the house.. Join the Civil Guard now," the occupation police and the Ministry of Internal Security launched a special campaign calling on Israelis to take up arms and volunteer in the "guards" teams civil".

The operation, which was carried out by the Palestinian Diaa Hamrasheh, killed 5 Israelis and wounded others before his death.

In its wake, the Israeli police's invitation was very popular among the Israelis, as it received 1,500 volunteer requests in the Civil Guard, according to official data.

The official in charge of the "Civil Guard" Brigade in the police, Anna Ben Mordechai, said that the armed Palestinian operations motivated the Israelis to volunteer in these teams and reactivate them with thousands who will work under the umbrella of the police.

Ben Mordechai recalled the killing of the Beersheba operation bomber, Muhammad Abu Al-Qia'an, on March 22 by an Israeli civilian gunman, saying, "The armed citizen's action and liquidation of the outlet prevented more deaths, and demonstrated the importance of the presence of police officers, volunteers from the Civil Guard and armed citizens in the field."

Requests to bear arms doubled in the wake of a series of commando operations inside Israel (communication sites)

Invitation from the highest government

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the Israelis to hold arms licenses.

At a time when Interior Ministry statistics indicate that 148,000 Israeli civilians have a license to bear arms.

This does not include weapons in the possession of security companies, the army and the Israeli police.

Noting that there was a 20% decrease in requests to obtain a personal arms license for civilians in the past decade.

With Bennett's calls, the Israelis' turnout increased to apply for licenses to the Ministry of Interior, and the increase in requests to bear arms was noted among Israelis in the cities that witnessed armed operations, most notably Beersheba, Bnei Brak, Hadera, Tel Aviv, Elad and Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, launched a campaign to restructure the so-called "civil service" project and employ it to support the police, under the pretext of thwarting and combating Palestinian attacks in the heart of Israeli cities, which recently killed about 20 Israelis and injured dozens of others.

Since the end of March, the Israeli security services have expanded their activities to integrate civilian volunteers into their forces, and in early May announced the expansion of the "Civil Guard" forces in every city, town, village and community in Israel.


Armed since the Nakba

There is talk about the "Civil Guard" force, which consists of "civilians", most of whom previously served in the occupation army and its security forces, and operates under the supervision of the Israeli police. These divisions appeared for the first time during and after the Nakba between 1948 and 1949.

In 1974, the "Civil Guard" teams returned to activity after the increase in guerrilla operations carried out by Palestinians and Arabs against Israeli targets.

Every Israeli, aged 17 and over, is allowed to join this force.

Volunteers are integrated into the events and activities carried out by the police and security services in order to provide protection for the Israelis.

Elements of the "Civil Guard" are deployed in cities and residential communities, and they patrol residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, compounds, and train and transportation stations.

Tens of thousands of Israelis are engaged in the so-called "civil service" project, which includes volunteering in ambulances, health services, rescue and firefighting services, and community service, while in the last decade it has been observed that they have refrained from serving and volunteering in the police force.

The occupation police are seeking to double the volunteers in the "Civil Guard" to support them in confronting the perpetrators of the operations (Al-Jazeera)

Targeting thousands of new volunteers

The total number of volunteers in the civil service is about 250 thousand Israelis, while the number of civilian volunteers in the police and security services is estimated at about 25 thousand.

Volunteers are involved in all areas of police activity, including public security, patrols, border police and special units such as divers.

Most of the volunteers are active in the border police (about 7,500) and the traffic police (about 2,300).

The Israeli police aims to recruit 6,000 new volunteers by next June, nearly 3 times the total number of volunteers in recent years.


Iqbal in the areas of operations

Over the past decade, between 1,000 and 2,000 Israelis have volunteered for the Civil Guard, but Homeland Security statistics show that, in the last four weeks, since the start of the new volunteer campaign, 4,000 new applications have been received.

These informal forces work to support police deployments in Israeli cities and provide an initial response to any attempted attack.

Police statistics show that most of those who joined the Civil Guard are from Jerusalem, followed by Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beersheba, with an increase in their numbers in the cities that witnessed the recent wave of attacks, especially in Beersheba, Bnei Brak and the "Elad" settlement.

It is clear from the data of the Israeli police that 85% of the members of the Civil Guard units are men, 15% are women, and most of the volunteers are Jews.

Israeli security personnel in civilian clothes within the so-called undercover unit (Al-Jazeera)

Tasks and exercises

Those who join the "Civil Guard" teams are trained in the use of weapons and shooting operations, and how to confront anyone who tries to carry out an operation or attack.

After they have been rehabilitated and obtained licenses to bear arms from the Ministry of Interior, the areas in which they will work or they can work in their areas of residence are determined, provided that the first options for volunteering are in major cities or in areas overcrowded with Israelis.

Each Israeli volunteer works at least 4 hours a week to assist the Israeli security and police, and the vast majority of them are spread among the citizens in civilian clothes so as not to be discovered, and they have the power to shoot in case of any emergency and when anyone is suspected of being a Palestinian guerrilla.


sharp rise in armaments

Official Israeli statistics recorded 19,375 requests for a weapon license during the year 2021, compared to 8,814 requests in 2020, which means that the demand for carrying weapons increased by 120% last year.

On the other hand, from the beginning of this year until the end of April, the total number of requests for licenses to carry weapons reached 33,429, which is an increase of more than 200%, according to data from the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security.

During the Passover holiday last month only, 2,356 Israelis submitted applications for licenses to carry a weapon. It was also noted that there was an increase in applications among the ultra-Orthodox, especially the residents of the "Elad" settlement.

Within less than 48 hours after Operation Elad, in which 3 Israelis were killed and others were injured, 5,190 Israelis called the Weapons Licensing Department at the Ministry of Interior and expressed an interest in obtaining a permit to bear arms, which is about 3 times the number of similar calls in the period prior to the armed attacks.

After the Beersheba and Bnei Brak operations last March, the Israeli Ministry of Interior received 18,452 new applications for licenses to carry weapons.

And this number rose last April, that is, after the "Dizengoff Street" operation carried out by the Palestinian Raad Hazem, in which two Israelis were killed and others wounded, to 33,429 requests.

Since the beginning of this year, requests to bear arms among the Israelis have increased by 200% (Al-Jazeera)

loss of sense of security

Senior officials in the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security say that the talk is about staggering and unprecedented numbers of requests to bear arms, and that these trends were not the same in the last decade, "which indicates the loss of the Israelis' sense of security and safety following armed operations and attacks inside Israeli cities."

Meanwhile, the occupation authorities began updating the instructions for licensing the bearing of weapons, and granting facilities to arm civilians in order to integrate them into the Civil Guard teams. Volunteers in the security services are given priority and priority in acquiring weapons within the appropriate units in the police, as well as workers or volunteers in the ambulance and rescue teams.