Northern Command halts all exercises after tank flips during training

The head of the IDF Northern Command on Monday ordered a halt to all exercises, following a training accident earlier in the day in which a tank flipped over.

There were no injuries in the accident, in which a Merkava tank turned over, falling into a heavily wooded ditch, during a rainy, foggy training session in northern Israel.

The crew, from the 188th Armored Brigade, was pulled from the tank unscathed, the army said.

The military quickly launched an investigation into the incident. IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Amir Baram halted all exercises in his region until the initial findings of the probe are presented.

“In addition, he ordered the lessons of the incident be shared to all units,” the military said in a statement.

In September 2017, two IDF soldiers — Lt. Avshalom Armoni and Sgt. Avinoam Cohen — were killed, and four more were injured, when a self-propelled howitzer in which they were traveling flipped over, during a late-night training exercise in the Golan Heights, the army said.

As a result of the accident, the military postponed several exercises and temporarily banned soldiers from driving mobile cannons after dark.

On Sunday, during another training exercise in northern Israel, a soldier was seriously injured when he was struck by lightning.