The IDF has decided to provide IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav with a bodyguard to accompany him across the country in light of recent death threats against him, Kan News reported.
Kochav has come under criticism in recent weeks, most notably from the chairman of the Samaria Council, Yossi Dagan, who said that "Ran Kochav turned the IDF Spokesperson's Unit into an extreme left-wing party."
Kochav has received a slew of online death threats after an aide to Likud MK Nir Barkat published pictures of political tweets by soldiers from the IDF Spokesperson's Unit against the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, and Dagan.
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi defended Kochav and the Spokesperson's Unit, saying that the unit functioned without any political agenda and that "any attempt to link the IDF Spokesperson's Unit to political activity is part of an ugly campaign that must stop immediately and has no place - certainly not from elected officials."