According to Haaretz, the plan is intended to address a scenario similar to the military operation carried out by Hamas on October 7.
The Israeli army is mulling the possibility of arming illegal Jewish settlement guards with anti-tank missiles, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
According to Haaretz, the plan, which Israeli army officials “confirmed is currently being considered” is intended to address a scenario similar to the military operation carried out by the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas on October 7.
“IDF commanders have not expressed opposition in meetings held so far, and the plan is now awaiting approval by senior security officials,” Haaretz reported.
In parallel with the war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army escalated its incursions into cities, towns and refugee camps in the West Bank.
HAARETZ: The Israeli army is considering arming settlement security personnel in the West Bank with anti-armor missiles to deal with events similar to the Hamas military operation on October 7.
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On October 10, three days after the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation had taken place, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that his ministry was purchasing 10,000 rifles to arm Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank.
“We will turn the world upside down so that towns are protected. I have given instructions for massively arming the civilian security teams to provide solutions for towns and cities, and so as not to leave towns unprotected,” Ben-Gvir said at the time.
Indeed, according to Haaretz, “the army so far has distributed a considerable amount of weapons and munitions to civilian security squads for reinforcement, including thousands of pistols, M-16 semiautomatic rifles and machine guns.”
The report indicates that “the plan calls for allocating the missiles to the commanders of the security squads. (…) The commanders and the military security coordinators in the settlements would be responsible for the anti-tank missiles.”
Genocide in Gaza as an Opportunity: What Ben-Gvir Wants in the West Bank
“Ben-Gvir perceives all Palestinians in the West Bank as potential terrorists, the same way that Israel’s ‘moderate’ president Isaac Herzog perceives all Gazans as “responsible” for Hamas’ actions. This essentially means that the Israeli forces in the West Bank are expected to kill Palestinians there with the same impunity as those being killed in Gaza,” Palestinian journalist and political analyst Ramzy Baroud wrote in a recent article.
According to Baroud, Ben-Gvir’s goal “is not merely stealing yet more Palestinian land, or expanding a few settlements. He wants a religious war, one which will ultimately lead to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, not just from Gaza but from the West Bank as well.”
“The war in Gaza is a perfect opportunity for these sinister goals to be achieved. For now, this genocidal war continues to create opportunities for religious Zionism to acquire new followers, and to lay deeper roots within Israel’s political establishment.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
