IDF bans troops from flying abroad over coronavirus fears

No IDF soldier will be able to leave Israel starting at noon on Friday in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman announced Thursday.

The decision was made by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi in accordance with the Health Ministry’s guidelines and following a situational assessment with the military’s General Staff.

Zilerbman said that Kochavi decided to take a strict approach to reduce the number of soldiers with the virus in order to maintain the IDF’s operational readiness, which is essential to the security of the State of Israel.

In addition to preventing all IDF personnel from travelling abroad, all joint military drills-in Israel and abroad- have been cancelled. The General Staff will hold an additional evaluation this evening to discuss additional guidelines.

The military said that Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir will coordinate the IDF’s preparations to prevent the spread of the virus and will examine further actions as needed.

According to Zilberman, between 500-600 soldiers are currently in quarantine.

All decisions made by Kochavi regarding the prevention of corona was approved by Defense Minister Naftal Bennett.

Due to the continued spread of the virus, Bennett held a meeting with security and health officials regarding the possible transition to epidemic status involving the transfer of incident management to the security establishment.

The meeting was attended by the Defense Minister, Deputy Minister of Defense, Director General of the Ministry of Health, Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander of the Home Front, representatives of the National Security Office (NGO), MPS, the Land Crossing Authority and more.

As of March 5, Israel’s Health Ministry is leading the charge in combating the coronavirus. But as part of a government decision from January 2002, the overall responsibility for dealing with pandemic events with a high death rate rests with the defense minister, who coordinates the matter with the cabinet.

The defense ministry started that while the discussion was held on Thursday morning, it was only a discussion of preparations for an extreme scenario.