Weapons theft from IDF bases on the rise

There has been an uptick in attempts to steal weapons from the Israeli army bases in 2013, an army report released Monday said.

While the total number of arms stolen is not drastically different from previous years, the number of isolated break-ins has been on the rise, with 11 incidents in the past year.

“In the past there were just one or two incidents like this per year, for example entering a complex where 12 soldiers were sleeping and stealing two MAGs [machine guns],” a senior officer in the military police explained, according to Haaretz.

The break-ins were noticeably more sophisticated and daring than past attempts, the officer said.

Sixty-two guns were reported stolen from the army in 2013, in comparison to 89 in 2012, and 55 in 2011. Nineteen of the weapons stolen this year were snatched from inside soldiers’ homes, while 26 were taken from military units.

Several of the stolen weapons later surfaced in connection to organized crime in Israel, Military Police Chief Golan Maimon said.