Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi ordered the immediate halt of all construction work in IDF bases throughout the country.
The decision was made following the theft of 33 weapons from the Sdeh Teiman base in southern Israel last month, and the suspicion that a contractor's workers at the base were involved in the theft. The weapons were stolen from a locked armory and there were no signs of burglary.
Arutz Sheva has learned that Maj. Gen. Kochavi's order was sweeping, except for a number of unusual construction tasks that for operational reasons, it was decided to allow contractors to continue implementing them.
In the wake of the weapons theft from the Sde Teiman base, the IDF mapped the armories in all the bases in order to increase the level of security in all of them. NIS 15 million (approximately $4 million) was transferred for the purpose of fortifying weapons rooms and purchasing equipment such as fences, cameras, and biometric identification devices.
After the weapons theft from the base in the south, the commander of Southern Command, Major General Eyal Zamir, appointed a special commission of inquiry headed by Col. Itai Brin, commander of the Ram Formation, in addition to investigating the circumstances of the theft.
The IDF Spokesperson's Office said: "In the course of inspections carried out in recent weeks, findings of irregularities in hiring procedures for contractors have been found. As a result, the deputy chief of staff decided to stop work until the defects were rectified, and the work will be resumed as soon as possible according to the orders and procedures."