4 soldiers injured during drill as bonfire sets off unexploded mortar shell

Four Israeli soldiers were injured Monday morning during a military drill in northern Israel when an unexploded ordnance detonated, the army said.

The soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Golani Brigade’s Division 36 started a bonfire to warm themselves when the mortar shell exploded, according to an initial investigation.

The four troops suffered mild injuries and were taken to Ziv hospital in the city of Safed. Three have already been released from the hospital, Hebrew-language media reported.

The incident will be thoroughly probed, the army said, adding that safety rules had been clarified to all members of the battalion.

In December, the head of the IDF Northern Command temporarily halted all exercises following a training accident in which a tank flipped over. A Merkava tank had overturned falling into a heavily wooded ditch, during a rainy, foggy training session in northern Israel. The crew, from the 188th Armored Brigade, was pulled from the tank unscathed.

On the same day in December, during another training exercise in northern Israel, a soldier was seriously injured when he was struck by lightning.