The haredi Netzach Yehuda battalion in the Kfir Brigade held an intensive training exercise in the Golan Heights during the Hanukkah holiday – its first ever in the Golan.

The battalion is usually stationed at Jenin and Tulkarm in Samaria.

According to the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Telem Chazan, the battalion exercise was full of physical, psychological and professional challenges. The battalion trained in coordination with artillery, engineering and tank forces.

“The fact that the exercise is aimed at fighting against a different enemy, which behaves differently from what we are used to, is a new and special thing for the fighters, and therefore this is a great professional improvement,” he told the IDF Website.

The soldiers managed to observe Hanukkah in between the training drills. “Between one activity and the next, we lit candles, sang songs, and the intense experience and morale caused the combat soldiers to burst out in song and dance, as a slight interlude in the intense exercise,” said the battalion commander.

“This example shows that the battalion’s primary mission, which is the professional one, does not contradict the battalion’s religious lifestyle, which connects to the operational mission and does not clash with it,” said Chazan.