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New IDF division to guard Sinai border

“The organizational change is designed to provide a better solution to protect borders,” said a senior officer in the Southern Command.

By Mara Vigevani, TPS

The IDF has established a new military division to guard the border with the Sinai Peninsula, the IDF said Wednesday.

The Faran Brigade, which will include the mixed-gender infantry Caracal and Bardelas combat battalion, replaces the Sagi Regional Division and will train the troops and command them once they are deployed along the border.

“The organizational change is designed to provide a better solution to protect borders,” said a senior officer in the Southern Command explaining that the new brigade will be deployed from Nitzana to the northern part of the city of Eilat.

The Faran Brigade will be commanded by Col. Eli Yitzhak Ben-Bashat.

“As a regular brigade, we will advance processes that will strengthen the operational capabilities of the battalions and will nurture the best resource the division has to offer -its soldiers,” Ben-Bashat said. “I am confident that with the human resources at our disposal, experience, and motivation we will continue to defend the borders of the State of Israel in the best possible way. “

Tal Igalitzky, deputy commander of the Faran brigade, said the challenge on a “peaceful border’ is particularly difficult and “includes cooperation with the other side of the border

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“The defense mission has not changed and neither have the threats and hostile elements located on the other side of the border. The organizational changes will lead us to improve in the mission and to do so in the most professional manner possible,” he said.

The name of the new division, Faran, was chosen to illustrate its connection to the desert to Jewish heritage. The Brigade’s emblem consists of a speckled background, symbolizing the border defense battalions belonging to the division and mountains and a fence, which symbolize the Negev highlands and the border with Egypt. The sword symbolizes the operational fighters and battalions of the division.