Bennett: War-betweenwars against Iran continues
Troops patrol cities to enforce nationwide semi-lockdown
Israel’s “war-between-wars” campaign against Iran is continuing despite the spread of the coronavirus, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday.
“The Iranian leadership insisted for many years to invest its monetary and human resources in exporting terror instead of on its own people and today the Iranian people are paying the price. Iran should start taking care of its people,” he said.
Earlier in the day Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin said the IAF will continue its routine and maintain operational readiness despite the outbreak of the virus.
“This is a historic event that happens once in a 100 years. The [air] force has gone into a state of emergency,” Norkin told senior air force officers by video conference. “We have made significant adaptations and changes in how we operate. We are aware of our people and we will take care of their health and we will help as much as necessary in the national and civilian effort to deal with this virus. We will continue to defend the skies of the nation. And we will be operationally prepared to protect the skies.”
Iran is among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, with thousands of people dying from the deadly virus, including several senior government officials.
In early March IDF Spokesperson Brig.Gen. Hidai Zilberman told reporters that there’s been a decrease in hostile enemy activity targeting Israel due to the continued spread of the coronavirus.
Speaking to reporters by phone, Zilberman said the spread of the virus has affected Israel’s enemies, who have decreased their activities to focus on containing the virus.
While he did not refer to Iran by name, the spokesman said “there are enemy countries that have been hit much stronger than us by the coronavirus and therefore their activities have decreased.”
Also on Sunday IDF troops began patrolling cities alongside police officers to enforce the Health Ministry’s restrictions meant to stop the continued spread of the coronavirus.
The 650 troops will act as an auxiliary force to the police, which has the legal authority to enforce the lockdown, which requires residents to remain at home except under specific circumstances such as buying food or going to a pharmacy.
Should a full nationwide lockdown be imposed, an additional 3,600 troops from the Ground Forces training bases will be allocated to the police.
According to Haaretz, the troops deployed alongside the police will not be stationed inside Arab cities and villages.
There are 58 soldiers confirmed to have the virus and another 3,697 in quarantine, many of them at two quarantine facilities run by the IDF and Yahad-United for Israel’s Soldiers. The soldiers who have been diagnosed with the virus have been placed at the military’s coronavirus treatment center in Ashkelon, which is also run by the association.
Col. (res) Sharon Harmon, deputy CEO of Yahad-United for Israel’s Soldiers, told The Jerusalem Post that in addition to the hundreds of soldiers who are quarantined, there are thousands more who must remain on base that are being helped by Yahad.
“The IDF wants to keep the troops separate from civilians so they can return to their duty as soon as possible,” Harmon said, explaining “even with all the chaos that we have because of the virus, the IDF needs to be strong because this could be an opportunity for our enemies to attack us.”
On Friday night a rocket was fired from northern Gaza towards southern communities leading the IDF to carry out retaliatory strikes on Hamas targets later that night.
According to Harmon, thanks to donations, more than 80,000 troops (both men and women) were given packages of hygiene products as well as games and other care products. The association will also provide care packages with food for Passover to troops, including 17,000 lone soldiers.
“Usually soldiers have families who can help them, but lone soldiers don’t have that,” Harmon said adding that “we will make sure that the thousands of troops on base will celebrate the Passover holiday, and those who remain in their apartments will get these care packages as well.”
Harmon said donors have given the association a total of NIS 8 million.