IDF jeep (illustrative)
IDF jeep (illustrative)Flash 90

The IDF has been suffering from a rash of vehicle thefts in recent months, despite army precautions intended to reduce such incidents.

According to an army document obtained by Arutz Sheva, since the beginning of 2016 the IDF has recorded 31 vehicle thefts, a 35% increase over the same period in 2015.

Most of the thefts have occurred on or around bases located near Arab population centers.

The most commonly stolen vehicles, the report shows, are small trucks.

The largest number of thefts took place in the Petah Tikva area in the center of the country, followed by the area around Kfar Yona east of Netanya, Netanya, Kiryat Ono east of Tel Aviv, and Be’er Sheva in the south.

Yoram Azoulay, head of the IDF’s Logistics Division, wrote that aside from the financial cost of such thefts, they also represented a larger threat, saying that criminal or even terrorist elements could use them to enter IDF bases and steal large quantities of weapons and other equipment – or even conduct terror attacks.

The thefts came despite a series of regulations adopted in 2008 to reduce such incidents. At the time, the rules, which set limits on where army vehicles could be parked, led to a sharp reduction in thefts.