IDF chief orders off-duty soldiers to leave base with guns following deadly stabbing

Protocols on not allowing soldiers to leave base with their firearms during holidays, and the chain of events that led to Weismann's murder, will be examined by the investigation.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: FEBRUARY 23, 2016 00:05
Off duty IDF soldiers are silhouetted as they walk on the shore of the Mediterranean sea (photo credit: REUTERS)
Off duty IDF soldiers are silhouetted as they walk on the shore of the Mediterranean sea
(photo credit: REUTERS)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot ordered all soldiers on furlough to leave base with their firearms, overturning regulations to the contrary on Monday evening, following the deadly terrorist attack that claimed the life of an off-duty staff-sergeant on Thursday.
“We will refresh instructions to soldiers on how to secure their firearms during their breaks,” an IDF source said.
Also on Monday, Nahal Brigade Commander Col. Amos Hacohen launched an investigation into why the military did not permit St.- Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a 21-year-old off duty soldier who was stabbed to death by two Palestinian terrorists in a Sha’ar Binyamin supermarket on February 18, to take leave with his firearm.
Protocols on not allowing soldiers to leave base with their firearms during regular leave, and the chain of events that led to Weissman’s murder, are to be examined.
Two Palestinian teenagers went on a stabbing spree in the Rami Levy supermarket in the Binyamin industrial zone on Thursday, killing one shopper – Weissman – and wounding another.