BUT MANY MORE ARE BUYING GUNS, INSTRUCTOR SAYS
At Moshe Katz’s dojo in his basement in Ma’ale Adumim, men and women roleplay events from the Hamas onslaught to be better prepared for terrorist attack.
Inside a West Bank settlement, ultra-Orthodox martial arts instructor Moshe Katz oversees students role-playing events from the October 7 Hamas onslaught, teaching them how to reverse the guns in a hostage scenario.
“I’ll take you hostage first, then you do it to me,” he told a student while brandishing a blue rubber Kalashnikov during a simulation for Krav Maga, an Israeli fighting discipline.
Switching to playing a hostage, Katz told the student to grab him by the back of the shirt.
“So now he’s grabbing me here and I’m saying I’m not gonna be a victim, no way,” Katz said, before seizing the barrel of the fake gun and flipping it on the would-be assailant.
“It’s your turn to die today, not mine!” he yelled.
Katz, 63, has converted the basement of his house into a makeshift dojo for teaching Krav Maga.
The self-defense system, which involves an aggressive fighting style and targeted strikes to weak points such as the throat and groin, is an amalgamation of various martial arts, boxing and wrestling and has been taught in Israel’s military for decades.
With many Israelis gripped by a sense of insecurity since October 7, Katz saw an opportunity to spread his knowledge about the hand-to-hand fighting system.