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Old Israeli Tank Stolen From Base, Found in Scrapyard

Israeli Merkava tanks are positioned in the north of Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 15, 2023. Photo: AFP

A decommissioned Israeli tank was stolen from a military base, only to be found hours later in a nearby scrapyard, police said Wednesday.

A report was received from the defense ministry “about a tank stolen from an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) training base near Elyakim junction,” police said.

Forces began searching the area in northern Israel and soon enough “found the tank in a scrapyard in the area of Nesher,” a nearby town.

Police said they were investigating why and how the tank was stolen.

The Israeli army said the tank was a Merkava 2, “decommissioned many years ago.”

“The tank was stripped of armament, and its systems do not work,” the army said in a statement, noting that it was stationary and used for training in a firing zone accessible to hikers.

It wasn’t the first time an old tank was stolen in Israel in recent months.

In February, a tank was stolen from a memorial site, to be used as part of a protest against the government.

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