Middle East Monitor / June 10, 2023
Following last week’s attack on the Egyptian border that killed three Israeli soldiers from the mixed-gender Bardelas Battalion, soldiers are refusing military services in the area, Walla news website revealed on Friday.
The soldiers, according to Walla, have several conditions, including the reduction of service hours from 12 to eight.
Last week, a 22-year-Egyptian border policeman shot dead two Israeli soldiers and sneaked through the highly equipped barbed barrier to exchange in a gun battle that led to his death, along with a third Israeli soldier.
The Bardelas Battalion, the Israeli army website states, “maintains the security of the Arava Region, which stretches from the Dead Sea to Eilat.”
According to the Walla report, the soldiers said that they were unable to perform such long shifts under poor weather conditions.
Israeli rabbis reported by Hebrew media saying that this incident proved that the mixed-gender brigade is useless, claiming that the male and female soldiers could not respond to the fire of the Egyptian soldier “due to the emotional situation they were involved in.”
