Israeli's military is exploring the possibility of arming civilian security squads in West Bank settlements and near Palestinian villages with anti-tank weapons to use in case of a repeat of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and massacres, Israeli Defense Force officials said.
Senior security officials have not signed off on the plan, but IDF commanders are not expressing opposition, Israeli news source Haaretz reported.
According ot the IDF, the process would allow the settlements to respond quickly if there is a mass invasion with the use of vehicles, such as what took place on Oct. 7 in Gaza's border communities, where Hamas terrorists used cars and motorcycles.
The vehicles left Israel's military, as well as civilians, struggling to fight the vehicles while they waited for the country's air force to arrive.
The plan has been motivated by growing West Bank tensions, as well as pressure from military security coordinators and senior right-wing politicians.
Thousands of pistols, M-16 semiautomatic rifles, and machine guns have already been distributed by the army to civilian security squads, but the new plan calls for allocating missiles to the squads' commanders.
The weapons, if the plan is approved, would have to be kept in a weapons storeroom or elsewhere, based on IDF requirements, and the commanders and military security coordinators would then be made responsible for the anti-tank missiles.
The squads are made up of civilians who assist with settlement defense in the event of an emergency and operate under the control of the IDF Central Command.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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