Man lightly hurt in blast during landmine clearing operation on Jordan border
IDF says engineering vehicle damaged while driving over old mine near Sha’ar HaGolan
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A man was lightly hurt when an old landmine detonated during a mine-clearing operation on the border with Jordan in northern Israel on Monday morning.
The Israel Defense Forces said that an engineering vehicle was damaged when it drove over a mine during the operation close to the town of Sha’ar HaGolan.
Local officials said that one man, a civilian employed by the IDF, was injured in the blast.
He was taken to the Tzafon Medical Center (also known as the Baruch Padeh, or Poriya Medical Center) near Tiberias. The hospital said he was listed in good condition.
Many of Israel’s border regions — in the Golan Heights and southern Arava region — are pocked with minefields planted during wars in the early years of the state.
Some mines were planted by the Israeli military, while others were put there by Syria and Jordan.
Efforts to remove them are dangerous and have been painstakingly slow, leaving the area near the Lebanon border, in the Golan and the Arava with a number of fenced-off minefields. Accidents are rare, but occasionally occur.
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