Extremist Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced on Wednesday that the government distributed 27,000 weapons to residents of Israeli areas near the Gaza Strip.

Ben Gvir said: “We will work to change the laws, so that Israeli citizens can carry weapons. We distributed 27,000 weapons to residents of the towns located around the Gaza Strip.”

He added: “We stopped and resolved all kinds of obstacles, and we are also changing the standards - now in the final draft - and we will pass them to the Knesset, to allow more citizens to carry weapons.”

The minister continued: "This war proves the extent to which citizens and reserve units need to be armed, and this, of course, goes hand in hand with strengthening the strength of police personnel."

Earlier, Ben Gvir said in a post on social media platforms that Israel will begin distributing thousands of rifles to teams of volunteers in border towns and mixed Jewish-Arab communities.