The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that several officers would be punished for “many errors and blunders” in the October theft of thousands of rounds of ammunition from a military base in southern Israel.
Some 30,000 rounds – mostly 5.56-millimetre rounds – were stolen from the Sde Teiman base on 21 October. There were eight Bedouin Israeli men Arrested Last month, some ammunition was recovered in connection with the robbery.
The IDF completed its final investigation into the theft on Thursday, and said it would punish several officers for their negligence that led to the theft at the base, which houses the Givati Brigade headquarters.
Colonel Eliad Maur, commander of the Givati Brigade, was formally warned by Major General Eliezer Toledano, commander of the Southern Command.
Meanwhile, the commander of an ammunition storage complex, an officer with the rank of Major, was sentenced to five days in military prison; The base’s chief security officer, a lieutenant, was dismissed from his post; The commander of the security team during the incident, another lieutenant, was jailed for 18 days; and the commander of the security team when the break-in was later identified, also a lieutenant, was sentenced to 35 days on base.
Another soldier in the Security Guard, a staff sergeant, was sentenced to 28 days at his base for theft.
Ammunition recovered after 30,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from an IDF base in southern Israel in October 2022. (Israel Police)
The IDF said that a panel of experts investigating the matter issued a list of recommendations to prevent recurrence of such thefts.
The panel said the officers “acted in an unprofessional manner and did not fulfill their responsibilities, which led to the theft of ammunition.”
For years, the military has struggled with theft from its bases, both by soldiers — who have stolen everything from bullets and missiles to Army jeeps — and by criminal gangs.
Security officials suspect that the stolen ammunition could be used in terror attacks. In March, nearly a thousand stolen IDF rounds of ammunition were found on Islamic State-inspired gunmen who killed two border police officers in a terrorist attack in Hadera.
Thousands of army bullets stolen at checkpoints from people crossing from Israel to the West Bank in recent months have also been seized.
