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Bahad 4 ( he, בה"ד 4), commonly known as Batar Zikim (בט"ר זיקים, ''lit.'' Zikim Training Base) is a training base ('' Bahad'') belonging to the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

. Zikim is located 8 km south of Ashkelon. It was named after the nearby kibbutz

Zikim Zikim ( he, זִיקִים) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northern Negev desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was established in 1949 on lan ...

. The majority of new recruits in Zikim pass the Rifleman 02 recruit training (''

tironut Tironut ( he, טירונות) is the Hebrew term for the recruit training of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). There are different levels of recruit training, and each corps or major unit has their own training program. Upon completing tironut, ...

'') which has all but replaced the older 00 level that was usually reserved for non-combat woman recruits.

History

Bahad 4 was founded in 1949 as the main IDF recruit training base, for all types of recruits (combat and non-combat). It was originally located in Tzrifin, but after the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

it was moved to the

Beit El Beit El or Beth El ( he, בֵּית אֵל) is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977-78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emunim. It is located in ...

base in the newly captured

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. After the

Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip commonly known as Oslo II or Oslo 2, was a key and complex agreement in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Because Oslo II was signed in Taba, it is sometimes called the Taba Agree ...

signed in 1995, the base was moved to Zikim.

Qassam fire, evacuation and return

Bahad 4 is one of the few Israeli military bases under threat of short-range Qassam rockets fired from the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, and has endured numerous barrages. On September 11, 2007, a Qassam rocket hit an empty tent, causing injuries to soldiers in neighboring tents. Four soldiers were seriously wounded and a further 63 were treated for moderate to light wounds and shock. One soldier, Avi Dorfman, was critically brain-injured, and his miraculous recovery was chronicled in the Israeli news. Following the incident, pressure was put on the IDF by parents to stop training recruits at the base. On November 19, 2008, Zikim was evacuated as part of a plan presented by Deputy Chief of Staff

Dan Harel Aluf Dan Harel ( he, דן הראל; born 1955) is a retired general in the Israel Defense Forces and a former Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Harel served as the Director General of the Ministry of Defense from 2013 to 2016. Biography Born in ...

to remove general recruit training bases. Following Operation Cast Lead, Qassam attacks decreased significantly, and returning recruits to Zikim became a viable option. In late 2009, after a severe shortage of space in the other basic training bases, several companies were placed at Zikim, and more are expected to be recreated in 2009–2010.

Structure and board

The base comprises 9 companies for any kinds of troops. There is a special company for commander training (קורס מפקדים) and officers' course. Female commanders are dominant on the base. Each company is represented by a letter in the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:אלפבית, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...

(from

alef Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez . These letter ...

(1) to yud (10), while skipping zayin (7)), as well as a word starting with the corresponding letter. Each company also has an official motto. The company names are as follows: *1. Alef (א) - Eitan *2. Bet (ב) - Bardelas (Cheetah) *3. Gimel (ג) - Golan *4. Daled (ד) - Dores (Predator) *5. Hey (ה) - Harel *6. Vav (ו) - Vulcan *7. Het (ח) - Horev *8. Tet (ט) - Tornado *9. Yud (י) - Yuval

References

Military installations of Israel {{Israel-mil-stub