Halevi orders probe into IDF ‘operational discipline’ after civilian researcher was allowed into Lebanon where he was killed

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi appoints a team of experts to probe operational discipline across the military following the incident in which a 71-year-old Israeli civilian was killed along with a soldier during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives, after entering southern Lebanon accompanied by a senior IDF officer but without the required army approvals.

Halevi appoints Maj. Gen. Moti Baruch (reserves) to lead the probe, which will “formulate a detailed situational picture regarding the maintenance of operational discipline, the orders and procedures of the army, the rules of conduct and the norms used in army units on the two main combat fronts in the north and south,” the IDF says.

The probe will start today and the team will present its findings to Halevi within two weeks, the statement says.

Baruch’s probe in in addition to a military investigation into the incident led by  the chief of the IDF Northern Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and a separate probe by military police.

According to an initial IDF probe, the chief of staff of the Golani Brigade, Col. Yoav Yarom, allowed Israeli researcher Zeev Erlich, 71, to enter the western sector of southern Lebanon to examine an archaeological site — an ancient fortress — where they were ambushed by Hezbollah operatives.

Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, was also killed in the incident.