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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cleared an additional 41 Jerusalem neighborhoods for personal firearms licenses Monday, meaning more than 300,000 Jewish residents will be eligible to obtain a gun based solely on their place of residence.
The move in practice extended blanket eligibility for a gun license to almost all Jewish residents of Jerusalem, regardless of whether they are, or have been, a member of Israel’s security forces.
The far-right minister touted the move to expand civilian access to firearms in a charged statement, saying it carries significance not only amid ongoing war with Iran, but due to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“Precisely in the shadow of the war and during Ramadan, Jerusalem residents have a basic right to defend themselves and their families,” Ben Gvir said, calling on those living in the newly-approved neighborhoods to go and obtain a gun license.
“Firearms in the hands of responsible citizens constitute an important component in strengthening personal security and enabling an initial response to terror and crime,” he continued.
The 41 Jewish neighborhoods join Har Nof, Givat Shaul, Neve Yaakov and Gilo — four Jewish neighborhoods on outskirts of the capital — as areas in which residents are eligible to obtain a firearms license.
The decision to expand gun license eligibility was taken after review by police officers in the Firearms Licensing Division, the minister noted.
Ben Gvir boasted that since the beginning of his efforts to increase gun ownership across the country, the government had issued over 240,000 new firearms licenses.
Though armed civilians have in the past thwarted terror attacks in Jerusalem by shooting and killing the perpetrators, anti-domestic violence groups have warned that the ease with which one can obtain a license places women with violent partners at even greater risk, as 2025 saw a sharp uptick in femicides.
The most common weapon used in the 32 femicides committed last year was a firearm, though only three women were murdered with a licensed gun, according to the Israel Observatory on Femicide.
Requests for gun permits surged following Hamas’s massive attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking Israel’s two-year war against the terror group in Gaza.
In the wake of the massacre, the National Security Ministry also granted temporary authority to Ben Gvir’s personal staff appointees, Knesset employees and others to approve gun license applications.
Five people who previously worked in Ben Gvir’s office were subsequently investigated by police on suspicion that the ministry inappropriately issued firearms permits.
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