Border Guard troops to be among those tasked with removing settlers
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Making new friends
Thousands of soldiers, police officers to engage in joint training in preparation for pullout
TEL AVIV – Thousands of soldiers, police officers, and Border Guard troops are scheduled to come together for joint training next month in a bid to familiarize them with each other ahead of the upcoming Gaza Strip and northern West Bank pullout.
The move’s objective is to prepare the forces to work together once settlement evacuation rolls around, IDF Psychology Division official Tzur Keren said.
“For two weeks they’ll study together, sleep together, eat together, do everything together,” he said.
In a talk with Ynet, Keren discussed the challenges faced by the IDF ahead of the disengagement and revealed how the army plans to connect soldiers slated to carry out the evacuation.
Organizational consultant for every regiment
The various forces slated to take part in the mission comes from a different operational culture and possess a different worldview, he said.
“Even the uniforms and ranks are different, and those are the people that would have to perform this sensitive, complex task,” Keren said.
“A team that is supposed to work together…requires social cohesion, that feeling of “togetherness,” he said. “We only have several months to prepare everybody.”
The training sessions that would bring all pullout troops together will last for two weeks and take place at a southern training base about three weeks before the pullout rolls around.
“We want to minimize the gaps so that on the day their mission starts on the ground they’d be able to work together,” Keren said, and noted that a senior organizational consultant would be deployed at each regiment.
The process of learning will continue even once the evacuation begins, he said, and noted the organizational consultants would be able to recommend certain measures should they identify specific problems.
