The company commander of the 51st battalion of the Golani Brigade will receive a negative citation on his permanent record, as punishment for accidentally leaving a soldier under his command behind in Gaza after an operation, the IDF decided Sunday.
Following the military investigation of the incident, it was further decided not to take action against other commanders or soldiers in the battalion. Additionally, the IDF leadership found no need to develop new operational orders for the battalion, ruling that a clarification of existing orders would be sufficient.
In late July of this year, a soldier fell asleep during a mission into Gaza and was left in the area. The headcount, which was carried out a few times, was faulty because other soldiers eager to return to the base answered in the name of the missing soldier, leading commanders to believe all troops were present.
Only an hour after returning to Israel
did the troops realize their comrade was missing, at which point they backtracked, and found him 700 meters deep into the Gaza Strip.
IDF sources explained that, despite the severity of the incident, a relatively light sentence was chosen because the event was found to have resulted from a single professional mistake and not from a faulty mode of behavior on the part of the company commander.
Regarding the unchanged operational instructions, sources insisted that existing military orders are clear and have proven themselves in the past. What happened in July was an aberrant mistake, so there is no need to change the instructions themselves, they said.
'Faulty behavioral norms'
The sources also said that the commander will implement recommendations of the investigation committee and IDF leadership, and therefore there is no need to take drastic measures against additional members of the company.
According to the findings of the investigations, the soldiers in the platoon behaved acceptably during the operation itself and their behavior during the headcount was not maliciously intended.
But other IDF sources said it was "bizarre that soldiers caused such a grave mistake by their behavior during the headcount and, at the end of the day, are not being punished at all."
One of the sources said that he found it hard to believe that the soldiers made an innocent mistake during the headcount, saying "there appears to have been contempt (for rules) that definitely requires punishment."
Yet other sources said, "This incident ended well only thanks to a miracle. The decision to stop the buck with the company commander is strange. There have been less egregious events which resulted in far more severe punishment. It's odd that an incident which could have had great strategic repercussions is being glossed over."
On the day of the incident, many military sources told Ynet that the incident could have resulted in a kidnapping and, as such, it undermined the past year's hard work and training to prevent such scenarios.
The officials cited "faulty behavioral norms" among the Golani brigade. One senior official went on to say that he was not surprised that the incident had taken place in the specific battalion in question, citing insubordinate behavior amongGolani soldiers a week prior to the incident.