IDF deploys commandos in training to bolster cops in Tel Aviv amid tensions
Move follows orders by Defense Minister Gallant, given increased terror attacks and rocket fire across the country
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday morning deployed a company of commando soldiers in training to assist police in Tel Aviv, given heightened tensions in the region following a series of terror attacks and rocket fire on Israel.
The move was made following orders by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday night.
The company was in its initial training period, which for soldiers of the 89th “Oz” Brigade, also known as the Commando Brigade, lasts 60 weeks.
Soldiers in training have at times been deployed to Israeli cities to pair up with police officers, so they can spread out forces more, as police generally operate in pairs.
Footage from Tel Aviv’s iconic Dizengoff Square showed an officer and a number of soldiers patrolling the area.
Tensions have soared across the region in recent days, with a rocket attack from Syria on Saturday night; a barrage of rockets from Lebanon on Thursday; tit-for-tat rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes over the past week; clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount; terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank; and a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria last week.
On Friday night, an Arab Israeli man drove his car into a group of tourists near a promenade in Tel Aviv, killing an Italian man, Alessandro Parini, and wounding seven others.
Hours earlier, Israeli-British sisters 20-year-old Maia Dee and 15-year-old Rina Dee, were killed in a West Bank shooting attack that also critically wounded their mother, 48-year-old Lucy Dee.
