The IDF prosecution on Thursday announced that, subject to a pre-indictment hearing, it would indict IDF Col. (res.) Yoav Yarom for his alleged negligent role in the deaths of civilian archaeologist Ze’ev ‘Jabo’ Hanoch Erlich and soldier Gur Kahati in hostile Lebanese territory on November 30.
On January 1, the IDF published the results of its probe into wider problems of military discipline following their deaths.
Other cases of civilians being taken into dangerous areas without higher-up IDF approval reported by the media include Daniella Weiss, Rabbi Kastiner, and Rami Ben-Yehuda. After extensive media questioning, the IDF said that there was at least one other case of an IDF donor entering enemy territory illegally, but did not provide further details. No details were provided about punishing officers involved. Bizarrely, Weiss has not been questioned about how she entered Gaza in order to identify which soldiers assisted her, and the IDF said it still cannot confirm that she did in fact enter Gaza, though there have been media reports relating to the issue, and she has publicly admitted to entering.
Next, the IDF said that hundreds of civilians were regularly entering battlefield areas with proper authorization and in order to provide essential services, such as construction workers and engineers, to maintain IDF forward bases.
In addition, the IDF said that it found that there were some broader discipline issues in areas, such as weapons readiness, cell phone usage in hostile territory, and proper dress. Also, the IDF said that discipline issues were worse in the Southern Command in Gaza, where intense aspects of the war have lasted for much longer than in the North in Lebanon and Syria, where the intense part of the war was much shorter.
Broadly speaking, the IDF seemed to want to clear the military’s name in general, saying that even the discipline problems it found were not too far beyond normal parameters.
Erlich, 70, from Ofra, and soldier Kahati were killed in Lebanon. Kahati’s commander, Yarom and another officer were wounded during the same incident, in which Erlich wanted to perform certain unauthorized archaeological examinations.
He was a known tour guide and an archaeological expert in the Land of Israel.
Shortly after the incident, Yarom resigned from the IDF due to his role in approving Erlich’s entering hostile territory, though this was beyond his level of authority.
'I share in the families’ grief'
“I share in the families’ grief, embrace them, and wish the wounded a swift recovery,” Yarom wrote in his letter to Golani Brigade commander Col. Adi Ganon.
“Given the values I was taught and my belief that ‘pride comes with responsibility,’ I believe I must take command responsibility for the incident,” Yarom wrote. “Therefore, I request to end my position as Support Company Commander.”
Besides the current wider probe by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Moti Baruch, IDF Northern Commander, Maj.-Gen. Uri Gordon carried out a more specific probe of the Erlich incident, including discovering that Erlich reportedly had entered enemy territory with authorization many prior times.