BICOM

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot yesterday authorised a change to current regulations, ordering soldiers to take their weapons home with them while on leave.

Eizenkot issued his order in the wake of a terror attack on Thursday at the Rami Levi supermarket in the Sha’ar Binyamin Industrial Zone between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The West Bank supermarket is frequented by both Israeli and Palestinian shoppers and is also staffed by Israelis and Palestinians. Two teenage Palestinians spent at least 20 minutes in the supermarket before stabbing and killing 21-year-old Tuvia Weissman, from the nearby community of Ma’aleh Michmash. Weissman, father to a 4-month old child, was on home leave when he attempted to tackle the terrorists. An infantry soldier in the Nahal Brigade, Weissman had reportedly asked to be permitted to take his weapon home with him, but permission had been denied.

Such practice was routine, even for new recruits, until regulations were changed in 2006. The number of soldiers allowed to go home with their weapons was drastically reduced in the wake of a marked increase in army suicides, which have reportedly subsequently been reduced. Also yesterday, Nahal Brigade Commander Colonel Amos Hacohen ordered a review of the unit’s regulations on carrying weapons while on leave.

Weissman’s stabbing was the latest fatal incident in near-daily attacks by Palestinians on Israelis since the start of October, which have now killed at least 31 Israelis. Last week, Israel’s Shin Bet security service released statistics on the attacks on Israelis during the current wave of violence. It detailed 238 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks. 37 per cent of the attackers were aged 16 to 20, with a further 10 per cent even younger, while 11 per cent of the assailants were women. Many of the attempted attacks have been thwarted by armed off-duty servicemen, security guards or armed civilians, whose intervention has prevented further injury.