Religious and traditional soldiers serving in the IDF are concerned that their commanding officers will exploit public fears regarding the coronavirus epidemic and order them to shave their beards.
Jewish law (halakhah) forbids hair-cutting in the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot; some communities have the established custom to permit hair-cutting between certain dates.
In most if not all recent years, a number of IDF soldiers have been harassed by their commanding officers into shaving their beards and in some cases, their appeals to higher levels of command to have their religious sensitivities respected have gone unheard.