Eli Tahar, who lost two sons and a brother, received a permit in a ceremony that marked a more than doubling of personal firearms in the country.
Israel’s National Security Ministry on Thursday issued the 222,222nd license for a personal firearm since Oct. 7, 2023, in a ceremony to Eli Tahar, the chairman of Yad Labanim, an NGO that supports bereaved families of fallen soldiers, the ministry said.
This means that the number of licensed civilian firearms in Israel has more than doubled since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel’s south, reaching a total of almost 400,000.
Before the attacks, approximately 150,000 people had licenses to carry a personal weapon, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.