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Israel Establishes 600 Local Security Squads
(Times of Israel) Jeremy Sharon - Since the Oct. 7 attacks, 600 civilian security squads have been established and armed in Israel under the auspices of the Israel Police. Retired Deputy Police Commissioner Shimon Lavi, appointed as coordinator of the effort, said Tuesday that these numbers comprised "a third" of the target. "In the last two weeks, we have been on a marathon process of establishing a very substantial force," said Lavi. "I'm not talking about just distributing weapons to civilians, but rather building a force of professional civilian security squads, a rapid response [capability] with a broad geographic reach, to provide a sense of security." He said the squads "have same authority to use weapons as the police." Lavi said the rationale behind the move was to prepare for a multi-front scenario in which the security forces are stretched thin. During Hamas' murderous attack on Israel on Oct. 7, some squads helped repel Hamas terrorists and likely saved numerous lives.