Man arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting woman at gunpoint on first date
Police say suspect only received gun license last month, after Israel’s firearm regulations were eased in the wake of the October 7 Hamas onslaught
A man was arrested Tuesday after a resident of the city of Rehovot alleged that he had sexually assaulted her at gunpoint while on a date.
A woman in her 20s filed a complaint with Rehovot police against a man who she said had assaulted her at gunpoint on a first date. An investigation was launched into the suspect, and he was arrested a day later.
During the arrest, the suspect, a man in his 20s, was found to own a gun for which he had received a license just last month, after Israel’s gun ownership rules were considerably loosened following the deadly October 7 Hamas onslaught.
In the wake of the brutal Hamas massacres in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were murdered amid scenes of horrific violence and another over 240 were taken captive into Gaza, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir relaxed the criteria for gun ownership, allowing for a huge influx in applications for gun licenses from people who had not previously been considered eligible.
The new firearms regulations reduce service eligibility requirements for obtaining a firearm, such that men over 21 can obtain a permit if they served in a combat role for one year or finished two years of general military service. Women are eligible if they complete a year of national service, as an alternative to military service, and if they live or work in a qualified dangerous area.
The previous regulations required full military or two years of national service for all citizen applicants, or to wait until age 27 to apply.
As a result, a record 274,279 Israelis filed for a handgun license between October 7 and December 25.
While Ben Gvir and other advocates of the new policy have remained adamant that it is a life-saving one, women’s rights groups have voiced worry, saying that while this can be the case, the lack of background checks can lead to more violence.
In November, the Michal Sela Forum, founded by Lili Ben Ami after her sister Michal Sela was brutally murdered by her partner in 2019, warned against the potential risks that are posed by the influx of new gun owners, and the expedited application process.
At the time, the nonprofit appealed to Ben Gvir, asking for the criteria to include a background check, to ensure that there would be no threat posed to women in abusive living situations or relationships.
Following Tuesday’s arrest, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari took to X, formerly Twitter, to chastise Ben Gvir and the far-right minister’s new gun policies.
“The writing is on the wall. Loud and clear,” she wrote. “This is a huge failure, this is the beginning of it. And it will be on the minister for national failure’s watch.”
During a meeting of the Knesset’s National Security Committee last month, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon revealed that the National Security Ministry did not have the manpower to deal with the spike in gun permit requests. As a result, national service volunteers were tasked with handling applications, despite not having the necessary qualifications to do so.
“The National Security Ministry tried to provide creative ways to issue permits, and some of these methods were found to be illegal,” Limon said at the time. “Now we need to ask questions about the consequences of the permits that were issued illegally.”
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.
