National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Israel Police have recently instituted a new policy under which the weapon of a civilian who neutralizes a terrorist who carried out a terror attack will not be taken.
Under the new policy, the neutralizing citizen's weapon will remain in his hands and will not be taken from him, so long as the attack is a nationalist attack and the citizen acted in self-defense.
The policy also requires that the civilian cease firing at the terrorist immediately after the threat to his life or the lives of others is ended, and requires that only the terrorist be injured or eliminated due to his fire.
Until now, the police policy has been that confiscation of the weapon is up to the police officer's discretion. As a result, in many cases the officers have taken the "easy" option and simply confiscated the weapon of the civilian who neutralized an active terrorist.
Now, Ben Gvir and Israel Police have agreed to end the option for the officer to use his discretion in cases of self-defense, so that in these cases the civilian will retain his weapon.