A military tribunal has taken strong disciplinary action against five army officers whose units were responsible for security along the section of the Lebanese border infiltrated by the terrorist gang which attacked Kibbutz Misgav Am last April 7, it was announced today. An infant child, the kibbutz secretary and an Israeli soldier were killed when the terrorists seized the kibbutz children’s house.
The announcement said that the senior officer in overall command of the sector was removed from his command. Another officer was given a short prison sentence, a third was given a suspended sentence and two others were reprimanded. There was no indication of whole specific changes were brought against the officers. They were tried on the recommendations of a special military investigating committee headed by Gen. Yaacov Even, commander of the National Defense College.
An investigation of the Misgav Am incident showed that the electronic warning system had failed to function when the terrorists cut through two rows of electrified perimeter fence surrounding the kibbutz. But that, apparently, did not explain how the five heavily armed terrorists managed to cross the supposedly well-guarded border.
A military spokesman remarked that the responsibility of the five officers was regarded as a ministerial one and the penetration into the kibbutz was not a direct result of inaction on the part of the forces under their command.
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