The number of applications for licenses to possess weapons in Israel has reached 190,000 since October 7, according to Hebrew media.

The Hebrew economic newspaper "Calcalist" said on Monday: "Since the beginning of the war, more than 190,000 weapons license applications have been submitted to the Ministry of National Security, and in the first ten months of 2023, more than 210,000 applications have been submitted, and the year is not over yet."

It added: “So far, about 31,000 licenses have been issued. For comparison, in 2022, 42,000 applications were submitted, and about 13,000 licenses were granted.”

As for “in 2021, about 20,000 applications were submitted, and about 10,000 licenses were issued,” according to the same source.

The newspaper explained that "weapon production has increased in Israeli companies."

It added, quoting the owners of arms production companies: “All production machines have been working non-stop and around the clock for more than a month, even on weekends, and every day they provide hundreds of assault rifles to the Israeli army units, which are fighting on the front, and to the reserve groups that are arming themselves.” , and personal pistols, to the civilian market that woke up terrified by the massacre in the south (the Gaza envelope), and it jumped by hundreds of percent last month.”

It pointed out that "the arming process is dangerous, but arms manufacturers and dealers come up with ready-made answers such as: It is not the weapon that kills, but the person who pulls the trigger," and "licenses are issued selectively, professionally, and in a responsible process."

It stated that "the price of a personal pistol ranges between 3,000-4,000 Israeli shekels (775-1,033 US dollars), while companies indicate that they have not raised prices due to high demand."

It continued, "Weapons made in Israel are only a small part of the arms market."

It quoted Amos Golan, head of the firearms department at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, as saying: “98 percent of weapons in Israel are imported.”

It pointed out that the head of the settlement council in the northern West Bank, Yossi Dagan, submitted a request a few weeks ago to purchase 200 assault rifles from an Israeli factory.

In recent weeks, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir announced the distribution of thousands of assault rifles in the West Bank, northern and southern Israel.

The economic newspaper said: “The war in Gaza has taken over the entire Israeli arms industry, with production floors busy working against the backdrop of the global arms fever, which was created by the war between Russia and Ukraine.”

It added: “On the first day of the war, they rushed to side with the Defense Ministry’s expectations, diverted all production to the needs of the Israeli army and stopped exports, despite everything that meant.”

It pointed out that "arms companies do not care about the opportunities they are missing these days abroad, as they know that in the midst of battles it will be very easy to sell to the world the weapons that were used by the special units of the Israeli army in the war in Gaza."

It pointed out that the companies consider that “sales to the Israeli army and security forces are a sign of the quality of any product in the weapons sector,” in reference to the ease of marketing them globally if the Israeli army uses them.

It added: "While many companies have been closed, the Israeli arms industry has not previously recorded such demands since the establishment of the state," referring to the large demand for weapons.

Last June, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said that the country’s total arms exports to many markets around the world reached $12.5 billion in 2022.

The ministry stated in a statement that Israeli arms exports have more than doubled since 2014, and jumped by 50 percent in the past three years alone, according to what was reported by the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

For 38 days, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of more than 11,180 Palestinians, including 4,609 children, 3,100 women, and 678 elderly people, and injured more than 27,490 with various injuries, according to official sources, as of Monday morning.