Military AG Gen. Sharon Afek has ruled that Lt. Col. Neria Yeshurun, who as armor battalion commander during operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014 ordered his troops to shell a local building with a kind of 3-volley salute, would be reprimanded by Deputy Chief Of Staff Major General Yair Golan. The MAG recommended that the event be taken into consideration in future decisions regarding Yeshurun’s career.
No one was injured in the gun volley, and the investigation found out that the building was not a clinic, as previously reported.
During the operation, Col. Yeshurun ordered firing shells at what was referred to as a clinic in the battalion’s communications, as “an honor and a salute” in memory of armor officer Dima Levitas who had been killed the day before.
Officers who served under Yeshurun told the investigators as well as the media that the shelling was part of the operation, and that the commander’s talk of honoring a fallen officer with it improved soldiers’ morale. According to Yeshurun himself, the operational shelling was taking place at the same time Levitas was being buried on Mt. Herzl, “So we decided to shoot during the funeral a volley of shells at the point from which he was killed.”
A recording of the event in Gaza.