IDF troops build first sukkah in Gaza since 2005

(JNS) - Israel Defense Forces soldiers have erected a sukkah in the Netzarim Corridor dividing northern and southern Gaaza ahead of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, which starts on Wednesday, Hebrew media reported.

It is the first time a sukkah has been built in Gaza since Israel disengaged from the enclave in 2005, forcibly removing some 8,000 Jews from their homes.

During the weeklong Sukkot holiday, which this year started at sundown on Oct. 16 and runs through Oct. 23, Jews erect festive booths across the Jewish state, in keeping with the biblical commandment of Leviticus 23:42-43 to "dwell" in sukkot to remember the Exodus from Egypt.

Amid the ongoing IDF campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, the IDF Rabbinate is this year providing troops with a portable sukkah which meets all the requirements of Jewish law but can be quickly assembled and disassembled in the field.

The Rabbinate also issued some 12,000 sets of the "Four Species" that have been checked by rabbis to ensure that every soldier can fulfill the holiday ritual of Leviticus 23:40-a biblical commandment that involves waving a bundle of four plants (an etrog, or citron fruit; lulav, frond from a date palm; hadas, myrtle bough; and aravah, willow branch).

The Sukkot holiday is immediately followed by Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, which last year saw thousands of Hamas terrorists invade Israel, killing some 1,200 people, primarily Jews, while taking 251 captives to the Gaza Strip.