The Israeli military said its monitoring of Facebook has helped catch 1,000 women lying about their religious background to avoid serving.

Israeli military service is largely compulsory, but religiously observant Jewish women can be exempted from service.

The army hired investigators two years ago to help stem the increase of people dodging national service and have used Facebook to find evidence of those women lying to avoid conscription.

A military official said that one woman who said she was a religious Jew posted a photo of herself on Facebook holding a menu from a non-kosher restaurant. Another updated her profile on the Sabbath.

They were both brought back to duty.

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