The soldiers will be forced to leave the military within two weeks, Israel Radio reported. The commandos were�on a field trip to Mt Hermon in the Golan Heights when they took the picture, posing naked in the first winter snow, reportedly a unit tradition.

The six, veterans of an elite unit, were to complete their army service in February after five years of difficult and dangerous duty.

The practice of taking a picture of the commandos standing nude in natural surroundings and then hanging the photo in their headquarters is a longstanding tradition of the unit, the radio said.

The commandos were reportedly unaware that a photographer for Yediot Ahronot, a Hewbrew daily, �was standing nearby and had taken their pictures.�The daily first published the photographs on Wednesday.

"You have caused great embarrassment. Where was your sense of responsibility? This cannot continue, and your discharge sends a message," their commanding officer, a lieutenant colonel, reportedly told the men,�informing about them their discharge.

The daily published the pictures again Thursday, with a front-page headline: "The IDF didn't laugh and dismissed the fighters who stripped."