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."