A near-fatal mistake at a trip to an army shooting range almost turned a routine training exercise into a tragedy on Tuesday.
According to a report by Channel 10, a serious error was made during a shooting exercise for a detachment of combat engineers. One soldier was reportedly left on the edge of the firing zone after his gun jammed and his presence was forgotten.
While the soldier was still on the field and in harm’s way, a second unit was brought in to begin a shooting exercise, as the officer responsible for the soldier had simply forgotten that he was still on the range.
The officer instructed the second unit to open fire, and the soldier on the now active shooting range quickly lay down to avoid being struck, and crawled underneath a small cement structure for cover.
Soldiers on the field noticed his presence right away and ceased fire.
While no injuries resulted from the incident, the IDF has opened an investigation on the near-fatal oversight.