News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Tuesday that more than 4,000 IDF captains and career soldiers earn less than minimum wage each month.  Ashkenazi said he knew one such captain personally.  The soldiers’ salaries are low enough to make them eligible for state benefits, he told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) expressed anger after Ashkenazi confirmed his suspicions that the army did not always give soldiers the minimum wage.  “This is an outrage and a scandal that cries out to the heavens,” he said.  “It’s unthinkable that the IDF does not obey the nation’s laws.”