The IDF suffered a new level of embarrassment recently after a group of Bedouin thieves surrounded a platoon of soldiers and harassed them during their training exercise. The soldiers were mostly defenseless due to the strict rules of engagement maintained by the IDF and suffered humiliation and harassment throughout the week-long training exercise. Adding insult to injury, the Bedouin not only harassed the group of soldiers but set up an organized scouting system to make sure they knew what the platoon was doing at all times.

Female trainers who were staying in the field with the unit were doubly harassed and caught alone by Bedouins while they were going to the bathroom near where the platoon was camped. According to one Israeli news site, the soldiers had to set watch for any female soldier who wished to relieve herself so that she wouldn’t be trapped alone.

It was announced to the platoon that they were surrounded by a dozen or so Bedouin jeeps as well as other unidentified vehicles.

As this is not the first time something like this has happened in the IDF’s largest reserve training base known as Tze’elim, reserve soldiers who arrived for training drills there have been warned of similar occurrences.

The Company Sergeant Major (CSM) announced during the drill that the unit had been watched the previous night by 4 vehicles lying in ambush around the Unit. Furthermore the CSM said that this had been occurring all week long and that during the day the Bedouin increased their numbers significantly with dozens of extra vehicles. The soldiers were warned about keeping their guard up and not letting any equipment remain unguarded at any time.

In response to the published article the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit issued a statement that said: “The IDF is working on preventing this situation from happening with all of the tools that it has available to it, together with the Israeli Police Department. On base a number of precautions are being taken around the clock to improve the defense and security of the base and prevent any attempts of this activity from taking place inside the base. Among the many security and precautionary steps taken by the IDF and the commanders of the base have been; the establishment of perimeter security patrols whose mission it is to distance these criminal elements from the base and from the parking lots outside of the base, increasing security of forces in the field, establishing ambush patrols an lookouts in strategic areas in conjunction with the police, and increasing security around the urban warfare training center. Similarly, security cameras have been installed throughout the base, and all armories have similarly had cameras and alarms installed and are constantly patrolled. The IDF is currently working on coming up with more innovative ways of dealing with the current problem in addition to what has been previously mentioned, which is already in place.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)