The Israel Defence Force (IDF) sentenced four soldiers to ten days in prison over insubordination in the Gaza Strip. According to reports, the four men refused to follow an order that asked them to board an unarmoured vehicle through an area in Gaza that is yet to be fully taken over by the IDF, reports said.
The news of their imprisonment was broken by Israeli public broadcaster KAN News on Wednesday. When the details of the incident were explained, the families of the soldiers reacted angrily, claiming that the IDF spat on the face of their own soldiers, Hebrew media reports said.
The four men of the Nahal Brigade, one of IDF's main infantry brigades, were tasked to drive through a street in Gaza City ahead of bringing workers for operational needs. To their surprise, the four of them were allotted a Hummer with no military-grade armour instead of a tank or armoured vehicle. It was daytime and several multi-storeyed buildings stood around the road through which they were asked to go through, The Jerusalem Post reported as one of the arrested soldiers telling KAN News.
The soldiers refused to carry out the orders as they were vulnerable to sniper fire or RPGs from the abandoned but not destroyed buildings in the area, they pointed out. If they were not being given armoured vehicles, they should be allowed to use the cover of darkness instead, they maintained. IDF has had enough experience already in Gaza to know this and there was no immediate reason to force them to choose the risky path instead, they reportedly told KAN News. Dying trying to save a fellow comrade is one thing while becoming cannon fodder is another, they claimed.
Meanwhile, the battalion commander of the officers refused the claims and told The Jerusalem Post that the four personnel crossed the red line and deserved the punishment. Refusing to carry out a legitimate mission on the warfront is unacceptable, he said. "I am the battalion commander, making decisions about human lives every minute. I have the discretion regarding the risk to my soldiers in relation to the values of the mission," TJP quoted him as saying.
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Ever since the invasion of Gaza by the IDF began, around 66,225 Palestinian deaths have been reported while 465 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground operation.
