The IDF on Tuesday announced that it has sentenced three paratrooper commanders and soldiers to between 20 and 30 days of military prison for being the ringleaders of vandalizing Palestinian cars in the West Bank village of Dir Debuan on December 27.
In addition, other soldiers involved in the vandalism were sentenced to 28 days of being restricted to remaining on their base, while not being in formal military prison.
However, none of the soldiers involved have been expelled from the IDF, though the platoon commanders involved are expected to be relegated to desk jobs.
The IDF statement did not say how many soldiers were involved, what circumstances led to their vandalizing the Palestinian vehicles, or why none of the soldiers were being dishonorably discharged.
Additional probes ordered by IDF chief of staff
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered additional probes at the company and battalion levels to better understand how such an episode could occur, but there did not seem to be any clear movement from him to expel any of the soldiers.
Despite the IDF vagueness on the number of soldiers involved, the noting of multiple platoon commanders suggests around some dozens of soldiers.
The IDF statement also emphasized that the soldiers undertook other improper acts, without specifying what they were.
According to the IDF, the paratroopers' actions violated IDF values and the mission of keeping the peace in the West Bank.
The incident comes at a time of elevated tensions during which there has been a spike in deadly Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, as well as a spike in violent attacks by extremist Israelis against Palestinians.
However, until now, most of these actions against Palestinians were not by IDF soldiers, other than sanctioned actions of self-defense to ward off attackers.
IDF sources would not address why the soldiers were not expelled, but emphasized that they would not return to combat positions.