Police confiscated 3,250 illegal weapons from beginning of 2020

The majority of the illegal firearms were confiscated from the Arab-Israeli community, according to a police press release.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An illegal firearms confiscated by police (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
An illegal firearms confiscated by police
(photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Israel Police confiscated 3,250 illegally held firearms, 80% of them in the Arab-Israeli community. Additionally, police arrested 1,713 suspects for alleged firearms-related crimes and 653 people were indicted following investigations, according to a police press release.
The release pointed out that it would be nearly impossible to unearth these hidden guns without excellent sources and claimed that hardly a day goes by without the police confiscating such weapons.
Since January, police confiscated 600 pistols and 100 hand grenades, as well as several land mines and plastic explosives.  
The weapons are usually kept by criminals who use them to commit acts of violence that target normative Arab-Israelis as well as other gang members. However, some weapons were acquired to commit acts of terror or other wide-impacting crimes.
The presence of illegal firearms in some Arab-Israeli communities also leads to some seeking them to defend their homes and families, which is why some Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli activists, among them the Karen Avraham NGO, have called on police to invest in patrolling and arresting criminals in Arab-Israeli communities.
In 2016, Arab-Israeli communities received 20% less policing hours when compared to Jewish-Israelis, Haaretz reported. This despite the fact that 56% of all murders in the country are committed by Arabs.
In 2016 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration announced a nationwide plan to improve police services in Arab-Israeli communities.