Israel National Guard to Deal with Future Riots

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – In response to the urban riots that took place while Israel was fighting terrorists in Gaza a year ago, the establishment of the Israel National Guard was announced on Tuesday.

“The Israel National Guard will be a trained and skilled force that will be able to operate in several areas simultaneously and deal with disturbances and emergency scenarios,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that “for me this is the closing of a circle. I came into office as Israel was licking its wounds from Operation Guardians of the Walls. We saw severe disturbances in Lod, Acre and around the country, and everyone got it. We all understood that while we were talking about Iran and Hezbollah, the problem begins at home.”

Israel Police Inspector General Koby Shabtai added: “Only one year ago we experienced in Israel an unprecedented event: An attempted uprising by thousands of Arab citizens in dangerous combination, criminal and extremist terrorist elements who joined together in order to attack citizens and undermine the foundations of the state. With the establishment of the Israel National Guard we are significantly improving our response to emergency events inside the State of Israel. We are significantly improving our response time in emergencies until the massive mobilization of Border Police reserve units. We are training more people to fight terrorism and deal with disturbances. We are providing better security to the citizens of Israel.”

The Border Police and the Israel National Guard will be composed of three types of forces, the statement said: 

The conscript and professional Border Police force, which in the course of the current year has been strengthened by an unprecedented hundreds of members.

A reserve force that has been re-consitituted. In addition to the 20 current combat companies, another approximately 26 combat companies will be added in the coming years, of which eight are already in place. They will be equipped with advanced means.

Part of the process is that in wake of Operation Guardians of the Walls, it became clear that the Border Police reserve companies were only partially equipped.

“This is a genuine revolution,” the PMO stated, saying that the reserve force will be set up in three stages within two years: 

A volunteer force: The ‘standing force’, which is currently composed of 8,000 volunteers on the periphery, will be strengthened by approximately 1,500 volunteers in 2022-2023.

A new and skilled volunteer force – the Hod company – will be composed of over 1,000 reservists by the end of 2022 and will double to 2,000 members in 2023. The Hod company members will be trained to deal with disturbances and emergency scenarios. Members will keep equipment at home and be available for immediate action. The Israel Police civil guard will also be strengthened by approximately 3,500 additional volunteers at existing stations in order to expand readiness on the streets and strengthen the sense of security on a daily basis.