On October 7, thousands of reserve fighters were deployed to communities, farms and other compounds in Judea and Samaria as part of the Regional Defense Battalions in order to prevent an invasion by terrorists, and since then they have been carrying out a variety of operations in the area, some on threatened roads and near hostile villages, but recently it became clear to them that as far as the IDF is concerned, they are defined as rear soldiers.
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Now the anger is heavy and there is a demand to change the definition immediately, with senior IDF officials fearing that the definition will lead to the abandonment of some of the fighters. In response, the IDF claims that the matter is under investigation and discussions on the matter are ongoing.
The armored personnel battalions are reserve units whose job is to capture the communities in times of emergency. On a daily basis, some of these units carry out infantry lines for all intents and purposes, but in real time they are intended to replace the alert squads and secure the communities, which are empty of men, and secure the communities. This was also the case at the beginning of the war, when in some cases no less than 90 percent of the men left the settlements and they were left almost empty, and those who secured them were the Gemar fighters.
IDF soldier on the Huwara route, photo: IDF Spokesperson
"At the beginning of the war, I was on my way to Gaza when they stopped me and asked me to come and command such a unit, and I agreed because it was a critical position," says a commander in one of the sectors. Like him, there are quite a few fighters, some of them even from commando units, who agreed to remain even though their unit operates in the Gaza Strip, with the understanding that protecting the threatened communities is critical.
"Recently, however, the fighters discovered to their astonishment that they are not defined by the army as a fighting force but as rear soldiers, which is reflected in, among other things, the amounts of grants that are now expected to be given by the government. It also dramatically affects the mindset of the people who left everything to go to the reserves, some of whom have been serving far from home for nearly three months, and have now discovered that they are not being treated appropriately by the army."
IDF sources told Israel Hayom that the matter is under investigation, and indeed there is no reason why the IDF fighters should not be defined as such. There are reports from units throughout Judea and Samaria of deep frustration on the part of the fighters after they turned out to be less in the eyes of the army, and hundreds even signed a petition demanding an immediate change in the situation.
"I was drafted by order appointed on October 7 as commander," enrages a commander in one of the battalions. "Since then I've been on alert, initiating, laying ambushes, breaking my back with ceramics on foot or in the patrol vehicle, building machine gun positions and making sure that the residents in the sector sleep well at night. Now we have been informed that the government's decisions to reward reservists do not apply to us because we are, it turns out, not combatants."
They added: "This news landed on me and all my soldiers like a spit in the face and a punch in the stomach. Aren't we fighters? We who seized the fences of the settlements that accursed Saturday morning and since?! What did we do here for 81 days if not combat missions?! I'm already closing more than <> reserve days this year. We, whom the army felt comfortable calling to an infantry line in August, are now not considered combatants?! At the moment, there is an awakening of interest among all the Gemar fighters who feel humiliated and humiliated."
An IDF spokesperson has not yet received a response.
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