Soldiers from the Maglan reconnaissance unit take part in a training exercise in Cyprus in October 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)
A friendly fire incident during an army training exercise last week in the north could have resulted in injury or death for a squad of elite soldiers, the IDF said.
No soldiers were hurt in the incident.
The pre-scheduled exercise included live fire with mortars and artillery shells along the northern border, according to a report Monday on Channel 12.
While the exercise was underway, soldiers from the Maglan commando unit were mobilized to the border fence for an unspecified reason.
A failure of communications between the forces taking part in the exercise and those operating on the border meant that the Maglan forces were sent into the live-fire zone slated for the exercise.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Illustrative. Israeli artillery on the Lebanese border, January 28, 2015. (IDF Spokesperson)
The training forces then opened fire on the site, firing multiple mortar shells that detonated near the Maglan troops.
The soldiers took cover and reported that they were under fire. Only then, according to the army, did the regional headquarters understand the error.
The exercise was stopped.
Advertisement
Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Amir Baram ordered a top-level investigation into the incident, with initial findings calling it “serious,” and saying the forces failed to properly communicate about their deployment in real-time.
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
