Israel is reeling from an escalating wave of terror attacks that is spurring an unprecedented reaction from its Jewish citizens — some are fighting back.
On Oct. 13, the deadliest day so far in this recent spate of violence, four separate attacks left three Israelis dead and more than 20 injured in Jerusalem and the central city of Ra’anana.
The most serious incident took place on a bus in Armon Hanatziv, a Jewish neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, when two Palestinian assailants, one armed with a pistol and the other with a knife, attacked passengers. Both perpetrators were shot by police during the assault, with one killed at the scene.
At the scene of that attack, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called for gun owners to start carrying their weapons in order to be ready to respond to future attacks.
“I don’t have good news for people who are carrying knives. If you carry a knife and you want to kill … you won’t go back home,” Barkat said to journalists at the scene.
The mayor stressed the differences in how guns are perceived in Israel compared with other countries around the world and suggested weapons could make the streets safer, not the reverse.
“In Israel it’s a big advantage; if you look back at a number of cases, soldiers, ex-soldiers with rifles or pistols were actually the one who neutralized the terrorist,” Barkat argued.
Minutes after that bus attack, a Palestinian man drove a vehicle into a number of pedestrians waiting at a bus stop in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood, killing a prominent rabbi and seriously wounding two others. The assailant then jumped out of the vehicle and began stabbing pedestrians.
According to the Jerusalem Post, a bystander subdued the terrorist using pepper spray and a selfie stick, before the attacker was shot and killed by police.
That same morning, a terrorist from eastern Jerusalem approached a bus stop in Ra’anana, an upscale Tel Aviv suburb that is home to many English-speaking immigrants, and stabbed an Israeli man in the neck and stomach.
In that case, another bystander at the bus stop hit the terrorist with his umbrella until the man was subdued. The attacker was later taken to the hospital for treatment of the wounds caused by the umbrella.
“I heard a woman screaming hysterically, and without thinking too much, I took my umbrella, because I didn’t have a weapon, and began to hit the terrorist,” Mickey Ruhani told a Jerusalem Post reporter.
During the first two weeks of October, seven Israeli fatalities resulted from terror attacks. In the same time period, at least 27 Palestinians have died violently, at least 11 killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis.
“The call to carry guns must be taken carefully — only those with experience who have a license should carry,” said Ofer Berkovitch, Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, clarifying the comments made by his boss. “We are not talking about taking the law into your own hands.”
In Israel, firearms licenses are typically given only if applicants can prove they have reason to carry a gun — for instance, if they work in security or law enforcement or live in a dangerous area like the West Bank. They must also be over 21 years old, a resident of Israel for more than three years, and pass a mental and physical exam, a shooting test and background checks.
J. staff contributed to this report