Soldier Attacked in Tel Aviv, Desk Soldiers Learn Martial Arts
Tammuz 25, 5769, 17 July 09 01:27
by Gil Ronen
Hand to hand combat training in the IDF(Israelnationalnews.com) A soldier was evacuated in light condition to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv early Friday morning, apparently after he was attacked while he was on guard duty at the IDF’s HaKirya headquarters in the center of Tel Aviv.
An unknown assailant rang the bell at the gate to HaKirya base around midnight, at the corner of Kaplan and Menachem Begin streets. One of the soldiers on guard duty went out of the guard booth to talk to the man, taking his M-16 rifle along with him.
When he failed to return a few minutes later, another soldier who was on duty went out towards the gate and found his comrade on the ground, without his gun and with a bruised head. The two soldiers reported the event to their superiors and the soldier who was attacked was taken to hospital.
He said that an unknown person attacked him when he reached the gate, hit him on the head with a rock, stole his gun and escaped.
The IDF and police from the Tel Aviv station began combing the area in a search for the attacker. The Military Police Investigations Unit is also participating in the investigation. It has not yet been determined if the assault was nationalistically or criminally motivated.
Martial Arts for 'Jobniks'
The attack in Tel Aviv coincides with a new initiative by the IDF, to begin teaching martial arts for self-defense to its non-combat soldiers – widely referred to as “jobniks.”
The attack in Tel Aviv coincides with a new initiative by the IDF, to begin teaching martial arts for self-defense to its non-combat soldiers – widely referred to as “jobniks.”
IDF journal BaMachaneh reported that the self-defense course for “jobniks” would commence soon at the IDF’s Combat Fitness School at the Bahad 8 base. The Combat Fitness Department and the Ground Forces Command decided to design a special course for representatives of the IDF’s rear units to enable them to fight off threats of gun snatching or abduction of soldiers.
The course is currently in the staff level preparation stage and requires the approval of the Head Infantry and Paratroopers’ Officer Headquarters.
The training will specialize in fending off threats that are more likely to face soldiers serving in rear units. Unit representatives participating in the course will receive qualification as self-defense trainers, and will be authorized to pass on what they learned to their other soldiers in their units – and to give them occasional refresher courses.
The Combat Fitness Department decided to open the course after it identified a pattern of repeated gun snatching attacks in central Israel. One conclusion was that soldiers in non-combat units are especially vulnerable to the danger.
Combat soldiers, too, will undergo more training in self-defense. Soldiers in 02-level basic training will receive theoretical lessons regarding vulnerabilities, as well as training in responding to an attacker with their hands, legs and guns. They will also be trained in extricating themselves from gun snatching attacks and from various chokeholds.
More advanced trainees will learn how to fend off knife-wielding attackers.
The IDF has decided that it will regard training in hand-to-hand combat as full military exercises, and that officers will be trained and certified as battle monitors – in the same way that they are trained to monitor live fire drills.
Thigh Guard
In addition, the IDF has designed a prototype thigh guard for soldiers training in full hand-to-hand combat, after trainees suffered numerous torn-muscle injuries.
In addition, the IDF has designed a prototype thigh guard for soldiers training in full hand-to-hand combat, after trainees suffered numerous torn-muscle injuries.
“When you want a soldier to experience a simulation of a situation in which someone is beating him up and wants to harm him, full combat is the only option,” explained Sgt.-Maj. Ron Rochberg of the Combat Fitness Department’s Krav Maga Section. "This is an important stage in training a fighter in an elite unit, but it also involves a high risk of injury in the extremities and internal organs. Therefore we need to coordinate between the soldiers’ weight and their abilities, and thus minimize damage.”
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