Rat attack
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IDF faces rat attack
Forget about Iran; for time being, army struggling to cope with rat-infested military base
Forget about Iran and Hezbollah: For the time being, the IDF
Home Front command is having trouble contending with a much more urgent problem – a rat-infested southern base.
The Beersheba base, which is home mostly to female soldiers, has been facing a rat assault for five months now, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.
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"It's terrible. They swarm the offices, the bedrooms, the dinning hall and the sewage system," one soldier at the base said. The troops have complained to various officials, both military and civilian, but the subsequent war on the rats – which included extermination efforts and traps set up through the base – failed to resolve the problem.
"The efforts didn't work and the rats roam freely around us. We're so scared that we can't sleep at night," one soldier said, adding: "Nobody treats us seriously."
The affair made it all the way to the Knesset, where a session was held to discuss the problem. Home Front Minister Matan Vilnai addressed the issue, nothing that "anyone familiar with the problem, and to my regret I'm familiar with it myself, knows that contending with rats is far from being a simple endeavor."
"You think you solved the problem, and then it reappears," Vilnai concluded.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said the army is familiar with the issue and that it is being handled by authorities.
"At this time there are very few rats out there, and more actions will be taken to eliminate the phenomenon," the army said.
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