Israel Defense Force recruits have been assigned police duty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip before completing their three to four months of basic training, a high-ranking IDF officer disclosed Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Matan Vilnai, head of the IDF Southern Command, said that recruits had been sent into the territories for weekly stints.
But it was found that this cut into their basic training. As a result, the practice will end in April, he told students in Ramat Hasharon.
Vilnai also discussed the high suicide rate among soldiers, in response to questions from the students. He said the IDF is considering whether to compel doctors and parents to report a recruit’s psychological problems to the military medical authorities.
He said that when he headed the IDF’s manpower branch, he had found that 99 percent of the soldiers who committed suicide had psychological problems before they entered the service.
But parents are reluctant to reveal such problems, and medical ethics forbid doctors from making such information available, the general said. Therefore, he favors compulsory reporting.
Vilnai denied the IDF suicide rate was at an all-time high. He said there were years when the suicide rate was higher than now, but the media did not report it.
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