Thieves Make Off With Tens of Thousands of Bullets From Southern IDF Base

By Matis Glenn

A large trove of bullets were stolen from the IDF’s Tze’elim base in southern Israel Tuesday, according to Walla.

The news outlet quoted a military source which said that the thieves made their way into a bunker, and stole 5.56mm rifle bullets; the precise number is not known at this time, but reports on army radio place the losses at around 30,000.

The Shin Bet, Israel Police, and the IDF are currently investigating.

The heist occurred despite beefed up security in the facility.

“Recently, the number of break-ins went down,” a military source told Walla, noting that the IDF had made a number of measures to increase their defenses. “And yet, they still broke in and stole from us.”

Last November, 70,000 rifle bullets and 70 grenades were pilfered from an IDF base in the Golan Heights; in the month before, 30,000 bullets were taken from a warehouse in the south.

November 2022, over 70,000 rifle bullets and 70 grenades were stolen from an IDF base in the Golan Heights.

A month before that, 30,000 bullets were stolen from ammunition warehouses in the IDF’s Sde Teiman base in the South.

The Jerusalem Post reports that most ammunition thefts are believed to be carried out by soldiers and civilian contractors with security clearance credentials, and that it most often happens in the Negev.