The IDF is intensively training soon-to-be officers with hand-to-combat in the face of a high motivation by terrorists to kidnap them.

The training will include soldiers in armored units, which normally have no need for hand-to hand combat, but the IDF says that perception has changed since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, who was from an armored unit

Hamas won the release of more than 1,000 terrorists and security prisoners last year in exchange for the release of Shalit, who was in captivity for more than five years. Even before the transfer took place, Hamas publicly encouraged more kidnappings to win concessions from Israel and the release of more terrorists.

“The motivation to kidnap a soldier or civilian has always been high, and now even more so,” according to the IDF.

The main goal of the updated training is to locate the abducted soldier before the trail goes cold. 

Soldiers learn intensive “Krav Maga,” an Israeli technique of hand-to-hand combat. The training is the last test for soon-to-be officers, and one scenario simulates an attempted kidnapping in a fake Arab village. Soldiers must approach and search every house in the village, when at each house residents could either attack the soldiers or break out into riots.