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A mistake made by a soldier in the 98th Paratroopers Division's recruitment center was the reason for the severe failure that led to calling up thousands of the division's reserve soldiers on Independence Day morning.
Division 98 has the reputation of being one of the IDF's most important reserve divisions, and those who serve in it come from elite units.
On Independence Day morning—amid high tension due to a possible Iranian retaliation to Israel's alleged attack of the T-4 airfield in Syria—5,000 reserve soldiers from Division 98 were called up via an automatic dialer system.
"An emergency recruitment has been activated, present yourself immediately at the gathering point," the automatic message said.
But the message that caused great concern to the soldiers and their families turned out to be false.
The division's commander Brig. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, who was parachuting over the Kinneret at the time, was surprised by the false message, which required him to quickly restore order and explain the situation to his commanders and subordinates.
Finkelman led an inquiry into the incident, which found that a soldier in the division's recruitment center, who was doing a routine morning procedure to check the new recruitment system, accidently pressed the emergency dialer that activates the emergency recruitment order.
"All reserve soldiers were shortly notified that a mistake was made," the IDF said.