Illustrative photo of IDF soldiers conducting training in a field near the border with Gaza in southern Israel, on July 22, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
A routine army exercise nearly ended in tragedy on Tuesday, after Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a shooting range opened fire while a solider was still in the live fire zone.
After their exercise, one of the soldiers from the Combat Engineering Corps’ Lahav 603 Battalion remained on the edge of the firing zone to fix his jammed weapon.
His platoon commander apparently forgot he was there, and brought in another unit to complete the drill.
The second unit was instructed to begin the exercise and opened fire with live ammunition, narrowly missing the solider who was still standing in the firing zone.
Illustrative photo of a soldier from the elite Egoz unit training in northern Israel. (photo credit: Abir Sultan/Flash90)
The soldier immediately hit the ground and crawled behind a concrete structure to avoid being hit.
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Six bullets struck some 5-10 meters away from him before officers and soldiers noticed he was there and stopped the drill.
The IDF said in a statement that it has launched an investigation into the “atypical” incident.
Last month, two soldiers were killed in when a grenade apparently detonated by accident at an army post on the Golan Heights.
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A week later, a combat soldier at a Mishor Adumim IDF base outside Jerusalem was moderately injured by gunfire when his weapon accidentally discharged.
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