Israeli TV news anchor does broadcast with gun strapped to her hip
An Israeli television news anchor took to the airwaves with a pistol strapped to her hip as the country remains on a war footing following the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.
Lital Shemesh, a host on the right-leaning Channel 14, sat on the edge of her seat at the anchor desk with the firearm tucked into the back of her pants as she recapped the news Tuesday, according to a photo that has since gone viral.
Shemesh, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces, has also been posting images on her social media showing her at a shooting range.
Shortly after the terror attack, Shemesh spoke out about Israel mobilizing for an incursion into the Gaza Strip.
“The entire country is being recruited to fight this war against terrorism, to fight this war against Hamas,’ Shemesh told Fox News on Oct. 12.
“We haven’t seen a slaughter like this in Israel in the 75 years of Israel’s existence. This is a second holocaust for us.”
Israel, a nation that historically has had notoriously strict laws that govern personal gun ownership, has seen a spike in applications for licenses to carry a firearm in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, which left close to 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians dead.
In years past, Israeli authorities would only consider granting gun permits to those who were living in areas close to Palestinian towns.
In the days and weeks following the Hamas atrocities, at least 256,000 applications were submitted to authorities from citizens seeking gun licenses, according to reports.
The Israeli parliament approved measures to ease the process of obtaining gun permits just days after the attack.
In all of 2022, the Israeli government approved 13,000 applications for gun licenses. But in the period spanning Oct. 7 through late November, the government approved double that figure, according to The New York Times.
