By Abdul Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM 

The Israeli government plans to make it easier for Israeli settlers to obtain firearms, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Monday.

According to the newspaper, proposed legal changes would make all Israeli citizens with firearms training eligible for a gun permit.

The proposed changes would apply in particular to settlers living near Israel’s West Bank separation wall, which snakes through the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

Roughly 145,000 Israelis currently hold firearm permits, not including soldiers and police personnel, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper quoted Amir Ohana, a member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) for the right-wing Likud party, as saying that armed citizens can support Israeli security forces against what he described as “terror incidents”.

According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, at least 100 armed attacks on Palestinians and their property -- by Israeli forces and/or Jewish settlers -- were recorded throughout the occupied West Bank during last year’s harvest season, including numerous attacks on farmers and olive groves.