IDF soldier dies during physical fitness training

An IDF soldier died during physical fitness training in the Negev Desert on Tuesday, the army announced.

Yehuda Suisa from the army’s Givati Infantry Brigade collapsed during the workout session in his unit’s training base near the Egyptian border, the army said.

Suisa was 19 years old and came from Beit Uziel, a small cooperative village outside of Rehovot in central Israel.

In the wake of the incident, Brig.-Gen. Nadav Padan, head of the army’s 162nd Armored Division, called off all “intensive activities” until an initial investigation could be conducted, the army said.

Two of the IDF’s infantry brigades, Nahal and Givati, are part of the 162nd Armored Division.

[mappress mapid=”5625″]

In January, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot dismissed a battalion commander, a deputy battalion commander and four other soldiers following a training accident in which an officer was killed.

Cpt. Yishai Rosales, 23, died when a mortar shell landed nearly 1.5 kilometers (one mile) off target on January 5, at the army’s Tzeelim training base in the northern Negev desert. A mortar squad made a mistake while calculating their new target during an exercise, which resulted in the mortar shell landing 1,450 meters off target, the army said.