There has been a worrying 88% increase over the last seven months in the number of female Israeli settlers receiving firearm licenses compared to the same seven month period last year, Israeli media reports said today, as ultranationalist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s program to ease restrictions on getting firearms has kicked-off.

Of the Israeli women settlers who sought firearms, the reports said, 44%, were residents of colonial Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.

Since April, Ben-Gvir has expanded qualifications for firearms licenses for former and current soldiers, reservists, security forces, and emergency workers. In mid-June, this expansion included medic volunteers and former non-infantry combat soldiers.

By early June, new licenses jumped by 280% compared to the same four-month period in 2022, with a total of 11,393 firearms licenses awarded.

Since the beginning of this year, a number of Palestinians have been murdered by settlers, the last of whom was Qusai Jamal Mu’tan, 19, who was killed during a settler attack on the town of Burqa, east of Ramallah, on Friday night.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency