(TPS) Two IDF soldiers were killed and four others injured early Wednesday morning during a training accident in the Golan Heights. Two of the wounded soldiers are listed in serious condition.
The IDF identified the two dead soldiers as 22-year-old Staff Sergeant Avinoam Cohen of Jerusalem and 22-year-old First Lieutenant Avshalom Armoni of Beit Horon.
The accident took place during a joint training exercise between the IDF’s Battalion Commanders Course and an Artillery Corps company. During the exercise, the units were mobilizing in a row of howitzers, when a sharp U-turn caused one of the armored vehicles to flip over into a ditch on the side of the road.
The IDF’s head of technological and logistics directorate, Major General Yaakov (Kobi) Barak, ordered a complete halt to ground training exercises until Sunday in order to review some of the IDF’s safety procedures and to better investigate the incident.
A statement was released by a spokesperson for Beit Horon, where First Lieutenant Armoni grew up:
“Avshalom Yitzhak Armoni, 22 years old, was born and grew up in Beit Horon. Son of Tamar and Chemi Armoni, one of five siblings. He was a counselor and later one of the leaders of Bnei Akiva in the community and very active. His second name, Yitzhak, is after his maternal grandfather, Yitzhak, z”,l who was devoted to Zionism and our Jewish heritage in the Land of Israel. Even during the period when Avshalom, z”l, was in a pre-military academy he continued to contribute to the community.”