An incident in which two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in southern Lebanon yesterday, initially classified as an “operational accident," was found in a preliminary investigation to involve serious and negligent mishandling of ammunition, Kan Reshet Bet reported.
The investigation found that the two soldiers had been removing gunpowder from live ammunition as part of a dangerous game when the material ignited and injured them.
According to the report, the soldiers were dismantling the ammunition in an active combat zone. The gunpowder caught fire during the prohibited handling of the material, causing their injuries.
The IDF said it views the incident with great severity, noting that it illustrates how failure to follow procedures can lead to negligence that endangers human life.
The incident adds to a series of safety-related accidents in the IDF. Over the past three years, 160 soldiers have been killed in such incidents. Contributing factors include failure to follow orders and basic safety procedures, fatigue, lack of professionalism, and lapses in maintaining operational routines under pressure in the field.
Yesterday, Capt. Eliav Haim Tzapalamus, 21, from Haifa, was killed when a Humvee overturned in southern Lebanon near the Litani River. Tzapalamus served as a combat officer in an engineering battalion in the 7th Brigade. Three other soldiers were lightly wounded in the same incident.
Two weeks earlier, on September 24, 2026, two reservists from the 16th Brigade were killed in northern Gaza when an IDF explosive drone detonated. The drone had turned back and crashed inside the military outpost where the troops were stationed. When the soldiers approached to inspect and retrieve it, it exploded.
Additional safety incidents occurred in recent weeks. A combat soldier and an officer from the IDF's Bahad 1 officers' training school were lightly and moderately wounded by shrapnel after an IDF grenade exploded during operational activity. In another incident, eight soldiers were lightly wounded in an operational traffic accident involving two military vehicles traveling in the same sector.
The IDF stressed that, alongside the fighting, it is implementing lessons on operational driving in complex terrain and enforcing weapons discipline.