15 officers, soldiers punished over gun theft from IDF armory

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi meted out disciplinary actions against 15 officers and soldiers, including against senior commanders, over the theft of dozens of guns from an armory in northern Israel last month, the military says.

Four officers, including a lieutenant colonel, were dismissed from their positions and a colonel will be barred from promotion for the next four years over the incident, the Israel Defense Forces says.

This is a dramatic move by Kohavi, meant to send a message to the military that such thefts of military weapons and equipment will not be tolerated.

Last month, several dozen weapons were stolen from a base in the IDF Northern Command. Many details of the case, including the precise number of guns, the location and the identities of the suspects, cannot be published due to a court-issued gag order.

Following the theft, Kohavi ordered an internal investigation into the matter — on top of the criminal probe — to determine how the theft took place and what could have prevented it.

“The chief of staff received the findings of the investigatory committee and determined that this was a case of the utmost severity, as seen from the results. Deep lacunae and failures were found,” the military says in a statement.

— Judah Ari Gross