The Israeli army and the defence ministry have finished arming citizens in the northern part of the country with some 9,000 IWI Arad assault rifles, Al Jazeera reports.

This is on top of the 5,000 weapons provided at the start of the bombardment on Gaza, according to a ministry statement cited by The Times of Israel.

Eyal Zamir, director-general of the ministry, reportedly said this is part of an ongoing project to “strengthen civilian defence squads that fought bravely on October 7”.