The Israeli Defense Army is to hold kidnap simulation drills once a month in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of its soldiers, the Army’s spokesman said this week.
The decision was made after abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit had been released from a Palestinian prison in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

Shalit was captured by members of the Palestinian radical movement Hamas in June 2006 on the border with the Gaza Strip.

After Shalit’s release a Palestinian militant group called “Committees of Peoples Resistance” announced that it would kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to exchange them for insurgents. It also promised every Palestinian who kidnaps an Israeli soldier a $100,000 reward.

Photo: EPA