A missing IDF soldier from the IDF's elite commando  "Sayeret Matkal" unit was found alive and well around midnight Thursday. The 21 year-old fighter had returned to his Ashkelon coastal community home in Kochav Michael, said a spokesperson for the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

The circumstances of the soldier’s disappearance are as of yet unknown, but he apparently had been bothered by personal prolems during a grueling 13-mile march and training exercise in a forest between Jerusalem and Be'er Sheba, according to his comrades.

He was missing since the pre-dawn hours after his unit participated in a training exercise. The soldier was last seen at 4:00 A.M. His commanders immediatey called off the exercise and decided to begin the search for him when he failed to make it to a pre-determined gathering place. Hundreds of soldiers, backed by helicopters, combed the area for the missing comrade.