Soldiers from the Paratrooper Brigade's reconnaissance battalion, whose comrade Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi died during navigation exercises in inclement weather in northern Israel last week, say they were instructed by their commanders on what to tell Military Police investigators.
Yosefi, 20, was knocked down in a flash flood while crossing the Nahal Hilazon creek south of Carmiel in the Galilee overnight Sunday, January 6. Yosefi was pulled from the water over an hour later by soldiers from the IDF's 669 search and rescue unit and was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.
Some of the soldiers in Yosefi's unit, who were home on leave over the weekend, told their parents they had been forbidden to discuss the circumstances surrounding Yosefi's death with them or anyone else outside their unit. The soldiers said they had been told to wait until the investigation was over, to spare Yosefi's family from receiving inaccurate details about his death.
However, some of the soldiers did tell their parents what transpired prior to, during and after the fateful training exercise.
The picture they paint is a troubling one. The soldiers say they were "prepped" ahead of the investigation and told what they should and shouldn't say when questioned.
The soldiers allege that their commanders made it clear to them before they were questioned by military police that Yosefi had been responsible for his own death, and that he shouldn't have tried crossing the stream because he had not been given a clear order to do so.
This is version of events is debateable because several soldiers have said they radioed the command center during the exercise to ask whether they needed to cross the stream, and the response was "be strong."
The prevalent sense among some of the parents is that these conversations with the soldiers' commanders were meant to "manipulate them emotionally and mentally" to build a uniform version of events they would then relay to investigators, which would shift blame from the commanders to Yosefi.
The Military Police Corps investigates every incident in which a soldier dies. In this case, GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan has ordered an independent investigation for the regional command level. The military police are charged with determining whether the Yosefi's death was the result of criminal negligence.
Briefing soldiers this way prior to questioning – or in other words, trying to corroborate testimonies – could be considered a criminal offense. It isn't even customary for commanders to speak to soldiers before mission debriefings, so the army can ensure the truth comes out and the proper lessons can be learned.
In the case of Yosefi's death, the commanders appear to have violated proper protocol. Several talks were held with the soldiers in the aftermath of the incident, supposedly to boost their morale. During these discussions, the soldiers were told certain things that could hinder investigators. In private discussions with their commanders, some of the soldiers protested and made it clear they would refuse to corroborate testimonies or cover up for their commanders.
"We won't let them pin this on Evyatar," one of the soldiers told his parents.
In contrast to information provided by the IDF in the immediate wake of the incident, the weather forecast prior to the exercise called for inclement weather. Flash flood warnings were also issued for the area of Nahal Hilazon. It is unclear why these warnings weren't transferred from the senior command to the officers in the field, along with an order to pause the training exercise immediately. It also isn't clear why the junior officers in the field didn't take the initiative to stop the exercise because of the harsh weather; and why the instructions about crossing the creek or not weren't issued in an unambiguous manner.
The training accident at Nahal Hilazon has also sparked considerable anger within the IDF's high command. One senior officer said it was an opportunity to "reorganize some things."
