4 soldiers jailed after one falls asleep in middle of live fire drill
Nahal infantry soldier dozes off during exercise, only to wake up when a tank bomb goes off near him; he is saved after alerting police to his whereabouts; an officer and three soldiers are sent to jail as a result.
As part of the sentence, an officer and two soldiers were sentenced to seven days of incarceration and another soldier was sentenced to five days for failing to fulfill personal and command responsibility in the field. In addition, another officer was severely reprimanded and fined, and a note was written on the battalion commander and to company commander.
Testimonies of soldiers in the battalion in which the incident took place indicate that the unit was ordered to begin an exercise in an open area in the Golan Heights, shortly after the end of the battalion's operational employment on the Gaza border.
After a preliminary practice that did not use ammunition had ended, one of the fighters, feeling heavy fatigue, fell asleep deep within the military training ground.
The bullet-free exercise was then followed by a live fire exercise. After his friends and commanders returned to the starting line of the exercise, several of them noticed his absence, but believed that he had gone to the nearby base. Other commanders in the force mistakenly believed that the soldier was still with his unit.
One way or another, and despite counting the soldiers before beginning the live-fire exercise, it began with the sleeping soldier still in the line of fire. According to testimonies, the fighter woke up at the sound of tank shells falling in his vicinity, hid between rocks and began shooting in the air in an attempt to be noticed.
Several minutes of anxiety passed, until the fighter called the police from his cell phone to report on the situation, and the battalion understood what had happened. It immediately stopped the exercise and took him out safely.
