The IDF is currently conducting an operation to destroy the marijuana hotbeds in the Southern Command and to "restore control in the areas of fire".
According to estimates, there are an unimaginable number of around 2,000 marijuana hotbeds in the IDF's fire zones in the south, and it is not clear how the State of Israel allowed the situation to deteriorate to such an extent.
The operation, which was named "End of Season", is part of a broader program in the Southern Command called "Defender of the Negev" which also deals with the issue of smuggling from the Egyptian border.
The Southern Command has thousands of dunams of fire areas, divided into several dozen fire areas.
Despite the attempts of the defense establishment over the years to eradicate the phenomenon of marijuana growing in these areas, the IDF estimates that there are thousands of greenhouses in the areas of fire.
end of the growing season.
Marijuana drying in the Negev,
The growth of drugs in the army's areas of fire harms the functioning of the army, disrupts training and is an infrastructure for smuggling.
The activity also harms the IDF's governance in the fire areas, and even endangers the lives of the Bedouins who roam the fire areas while the IDF conducts live fire training in them.
As part of the operation, which began this week and is expected to last between three and four weeks, forces were divided into teams, and each team was given the task of destroying 15 greenhouses a day.
The army hopes to succeed in destroying several dozen greenhouses every day.
In the first two days of the operation, 34 greenhouses were destroyed, including more than 14 thousand seedlings.
According to the work plan, each team sets out in the early morning hours and is supposed to locate the greenhouses independently and destroy them with scythes, hoes and fire.
Each of the teams is assigned a police officer who is supposed to deal with the civilian issues of drug growth in the fire areas, and the forces all walk around with personal weapons.
The army emphasizes the close cooperation with the police and the Green Patrol.
The current time for the targeted operation was chosen because the first rains herald the end of the growing season.
The season is expected to resume at the beginning of spring, and it is likely that even if the IDF succeeds in destroying hundreds of greenhouses in the next three weeks, new ones will be established like mushrooms after the rain.
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