A senior IDF officer addressed Wednesday afternoon, the tragedy in Hevron during which Lieutenant David Golovenchich of blessed memory was killed.
“The procedures concerning the incident in which Officer Golovenchich was killed last night were incorrect,” he said. “It is not possible to judge either the soldier who fired the shot or the officer who did not properly deal with the unloading of the weapon, and the issue will be checked,” he said.
He described the event as it seemed according to initial investigations. “At the end of operational activity in Hevron, the commander of the unit held an exercise simulating a terror attack on IDF forces during a security check.”
“During the exercise, the commander [pretended to be a terrorist with] actions including drawing a knife and flipping the checking table on the soldiers. One of the soldiers present during the exercise shot live fire at the officer, which killed him.
“From initial investigations, it was revealed that the soldier mistakenly thought that there was no bullet in his weapon, but the procedure for unloading weapons at the end of operational activity was also not carried out properly.”
“The army is taking the incident seriously and, aside from a halt in the activity, forces will be briefed today and tomorrow about the proper handling of weapons in every way. The investigation will take place in three separately defined but simultaneous probes by three commanders. At the moment, there are no conclusions or decisions,” he ended.