Bereaved families’ sons won’t be trained at Zikim
Due to Qassam attacks, IDF recognizes risk at Zikim training camp and stops sending sons of bereaved families there; meanwhile, Zikim commanders say if army sees camp as dangerous, why did it cancel their ‘risk bonuses’?
With the grave threat of Qassam attacks in the western Negev, the IDF has decided not to send soldiers from bereaved families to the Zikim military training camp south of Ashkelon, Ynet has learned.
Meanwhile, commanders from the training cores have approached the commissioner for the reception of soldiers complaining that their bonuses were unjustly cancelled considering the escalating circumstances at Zikim since the IDF withdrew from Gaza.
The Qassam rocket that landed inside the training camp in December 2005, and an additional rocket the hit next to the camp a few days ago, led the IDF to accelerate work securing the camp, but evidently the move was viewed as insufficient considering the increasing danger to soldiers stationed there.
After repeated appeals from bereaved families with sons serving at Zikim, the IDF chose a new routine. The company commanders at the base evidently were never specifically informed of the decision, but said they lately noticed that they no longer interviewed soldiers from bereaved families.
Meanwhile, commanders at the base undertook their own struggle, especially after it came to their attention that the upper brass recognized the fact that the base was a dangerous spot.
The commanders were spurred to complain to the commissioner after a decision by which an “operations risk bonus” would be added to their monthly salary for three months was cancelled. Head of Personnel Directorate Elazar Stern cancelled the decision unexpectedly two weeks after it was made. The shocked commanders refused to accept the explanations they were given for the change.
'Why is there not a fear of dealing with new families?'
In the complaint they filed, the commanders wrote that since the day the IDF withdrew from Gaza, “daily life at the camp focuses on securing the camp, Qassam attacks, and warnings of infiltrators” rather than training soldiers.
They spend many hours at high alert and therefore “it is difficult to have a proper daily routine,” they wrote. “A great effort is demanded of us to fulfill the task we are here for – which is training the new recruits.”
A draft of the complaint attained by Ynet notes that by the end of March 2006, the camp had 56 real drills due to Qassam attacks.
“The routine here is one of war circumstances,” they wrote and expressed amazement that the same body that decided not to send sons of bereaved families to Zikim, also decided to cancel their extra compensation.
“Why are soldiers from bereaved families not sent to Zikim? Is there a fear of dealing with those families a second time? Why is there not a fear of dealing with new families?” the commanders wrote in the complaint.
