A soldier serving in the IDF’s elite 8200 military intelligence unit was sentenced to 19 days in prison on Wednesday for uploading a picture onto the Facebook social networking site.

The IDF would not comment on the exact nature of the photograph, but said the punishment was in proportion to the committed offense. Military sources said an IDF directive prohibits photography on bases without official approval.

The sources said the soldier in question would be punished for taking pictures on a military base without permission . . .

Last week, The Jerusalem Post publicized the fact that a special unit inside the IDF was working to remove hundreds of classified photos, documents and messages available on Facebook and that the Defense Ministry and the IDF, had issued a stern warning to anyone caught uploading this type of content onto the Internet.

The Post probe revealed that soldiers had posted pictures of advanced weapons training, interiors and exteriors of bases - including the equipment inside them - and troop exercises and locations onto Facebook.

The Defense Ministry said that anyone caught posting classified material onto the Internet would be court-martialed. The ministry said it had no information indicating that foreign intelligence services and terrorist groups were making use of the plethora of photographs and information on Facebook to gather intelligence on the IDF, but sources within the IDF confirmed that the army was racing against time to track down and remove classified information from the popular site