Soldiers at Nahal Oz
Photo: AP
IAF missile lands in Kibbutz Nahal Oz
Kibbutz residents near Gaza hear loud explosion, discover 'bomb that looks like it's just been dropped'
An Israeli Air Force missile dud was discovered Thursday morning at Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza.
According to suspicions, a malfunction in an IAF craft resulted in the falling of the missile in the kibbutz. There were no injuries, but some damage was caused to the infirmary.
A loud explosion was heard by the kibbutz residents, who have become accustomed to the sounds of explosions. They believed that the sound was caused by a Qassam rocket or a mortar shell. In the morning they began scouring the kibbutz grounds, and security guards found a bomb that had just been dropped.
"We found a very complex bomb that had wires and sophisticated parts connected to it," sources in the area told Ynet.
The source said, "We thought that this was the new smart bomb recently activated by the Palestinians, which caused great concern in the area. We quickly brought in police and security forces, which immediately closed off the whole area and ordered us not to talk about this."
'Incident not severe'
A few hours later it became clear that the missile fell by accident from an Air Force craft.
The military has begun investigating the circumstances of the error. The missile did not explode.
In recent days the IAF has been operating intensively in Gaza's skies, and has carried out attacks on access routes used by terror cells to reach Qassam launching pads.
IDF forces pointed out that when the Air force operates intensively with a large number of weapons, errors occasionally take place, but that the incident should not be categorized as severe.
