Weapons amnesty station
Weapons amnesty stationFlash 90

This week, the IDF Technology and Logistics Division completed a nationwide operation to encourage returning IDF property.

The operation, held in honor of Israel's 70th year, called on citizens to return ordnance and for the first time, historical items. It lasted for about a month between June 17 and July 13. As part of the operation, more than 100 stations operated throughout the country, as well as mobile collection units that arrived at civilian homes and collected personal equipment from them.

Some 400 weapons, including pistols, machine guns, submachine guns, rifles including a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and more were returned.

1,050,957 ammunition pieces and 395 controlled combat equipment items were returned including optics, night vision equipment, sights, communication devices, and more.

21,368 items were returned such as tents, vests, camouflage equipment, helmets, parachutes, and more.

4,133 historical items were returned, including maps, Torah scrolls, warning orders, pictures, and more.
4,019 applications were received at the Hotline.

IDF equipment-return station
IDF equipment-return stationFlash 90

"The operation contributed to the IDF and State of Israel's safety and operation, as possession of weapons at home involves risk. Equipment returned to the IDF is to be restored and used or destroyed in a secure manner, according to its condition," the IDF says.

Brigadier General Nissan Davidi said, "Within the framework of the operation, hundreds of stations operated for about a month, along with collection vehicles moving around the country, which returned to the IDF military equipment, weapons, and historical items that are important for documenting the history of the IDF. I congratulate the citizens of Israel on the cooperation and understanding of the operational and safety importance of the operation."

After the operation was made public, the mother of the late Brigadier General Uri Ben-Ari, Mrs. Milka Ben-Ari, contacted the hotline to hand over documents and recordings kept in their homes over the years. Milka Ben Ari is also grandmother of the late Ido Ben Ari, killed in a training accident in November, 2016.

Brigadier General Ben Ari was Armored Corps Commander, a diplomat, and an Israeli writer. The materials his mother returned included twelve of Uri's workbooks including transcripts and recordings of lessons-learning conferences held after the Six-Day War when he served as Harel brigade commander, orders and summaries of the large armor exercises that took place in the 1950s and influenced IDF force building, manuscripts, recordings and transcripts of lectures he gave to the commanders in January 1974 about the Yom Kippur War in which he served as Southern Command Deputy Commander, as well as a manuscript and notes from writing his books."

IDF equipment-return station
IDF equipment-return stationFlash 90

As part of the operation, documents of a brigade intelligence officer from the Yom Kippur War were returned. Among the documents was an explanatory leaflet for the commanders from the outbreak of the war, a diary in the officer's handwriting, and two daily reports from the fighting. These pages document the battles of the "Chinese Farm", armored and infantry battles of the IDF against the armored and mechanized forces of the Egyptian army in the western Sinai Peninsula, from the ninth day until the twelfth day of the Yom Kippur War.

Also in the framework of the operation a family member of Private David Greenwald came to one of the returning stations 34 years after his death. David was the only son of his father, while his mother had two older brothers. An only son to his father, he had the right to serve in a back-end unit but did everything in his power to serve in a combat unit. Finally David managed to serve in the paratroopers under the command of Major General Yom Tov Samia. Before his departure for the course, Colonel David was stationed in Lebanon. On the way from Lebanon to Israel when he was in a convoy south of Zahrani, on January 12, 1984, terrorists opened fire on the convoy. David was critically wounded and died. Among the belongings of the late Greenwald, there is also a paper on which was written a guide to Lebanon operations.

As part of the amnesty operation, IDF representatives arrived at the request of the family of First Sergeant Ofir Megidish, murdered in the 2001 Azor Junction attack, to collect his personal military equipment. In 1998, First Sergeant Ofir Magidish enlisted in the Artillery Corps, but because of his mother's health he moved to serve in the center of the country. On the morning of February 14, 2001, Ofir was killed in a terror attack at the Azor junction, In the same attack, six soldiers and one civilian were killed: The late Sergeant David Iluz, the late Sergeant Julie Weiner, the late Sergeant Racheli Levy, the late Sergeant Kokhi Polonsky, the late Corporal Alexander Manevitch, the late Corporal Yasmin Krisi and the late Simcha Shitrit. Ofir's parents said he was a gifted, quiet, modest child and wrote songs from an early age.

Parents of First Sergeant Ofir Megadish
Parents of First Sergeant Ofir Megadishz"l