IDF Trains Standby Squads in Northern Samaria

The IDF has begun training residents of the renewed communities in northern Samaria as civilian standby squads, starting with Sa-Nur, the Samaria Regional Council said Sunday.

The volunteers are taking part in an intensive two-day course that includes shooting ranges and operational drills. Squads in the area’s other communities are expected to go through similar training soon, as part of a local defense network built in cooperation with the IDF.

The Sa-Nur squad includes Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, a reserve captain, who moved back to the community 21 years after its residents were expelled in the 2005 Disengagement. He is joined by Akiva Smotrich, Zeev Wasserteil and David Pedida, who all lived in Sa-Nur before the evacuation and returned this year under the Reconnection Plan. Yehoshua Levanon, the chairman of the community committee and a reserve combat soldier, is also a member.

According to the council, many of the volunteers across the communities are reserve combat soldiers and officers, now receiving dedicated training to defend the places where they live.

The IDF supplies the squads with combat gear and weapons. The council is working to obtain additional equipment through donations from Jewish communities in the United States, with help from One Israel Fund.

“Our return to northern Samaria is accompanied by determined security work and the building of an iron wall of defense,” Dagan said. “The standby squads are made up of the pioneering residents who stand on the front line together with IDF soldiers and protect the home.” He thanked the IDF and American donors, singling out One Israel Fund as “truly our partners in building and defending the land.”

“We have returned to northern Samaria, and we are deepening our hold on the communities in every area, including security,” Levanon said.

A standby squad is already operating in nearby Har Eival, made up of residents who settled there several months ago. According to community committee chairman Avi Kashi, the squad works under security coordinator Binyamin Klein, together with the IDF’s Samaria Brigade and the council’s security department. Squad members periodically patrol the area around the community and its access road to deter terrorist activity.