Explosion at Haifa Naval Base wounds 7
Soldiers, servicemen caught in blast during routine maintenance on warships docking at base. One suffers sever head injury, rushed to emergency surgery; six others sustain moderate to light wounds. Navy to probe incident
Seven people were injured Wednesday, one sustaining serious wounds, in an explosion which occurred at the Haifa Naval Base.
The seven, both soldier and civilian servicemen, were part of a technical crew servicing one of the guns on board the INS Tarshish, which docked at the base after a malefaction was discovered in its guns while at sea. The Navy has launched an investigation into the incident.
Magen David Adom and military ambulances evacuated the injured to the Rambam Medical Center in the city. Prof. Raffi Biar, Rambam's chief of staff told Ynet that one of the man suffered a sever head injury and was undergoing emergency surgery.
Triaged and cared for. The injured at Rambam (Photo: Doron Golan)
A second man suffered moderate injuries, while five other were lightly wounded. Dr. Eran Tal-Or, the attending at Rambam's trauma unite, told Ynet the injuries were typical of an explosion and that all of the injured had been triaged and treated.
The IDF has suffered a series of training and operational accidents lately: The year began with the death of Staff-Sergeant Tamir Nevuani (19), who fell 50 feet to his death during a navigating excise in southern Israel; Staff-Sergeant Yariv Ben-Amitai was killed in a Humvee accident near the Gaza security fence in November of 2007.
In late November, Staff-Sergeant Assaf Waxman (28) was killed, and five other soldiers wounded, in a military drill in the Golan Heights. IDF soldier Ma'ayan Rotenberg died in late November as well, in a tank accident.
Hanan Greenberg contributed to this report
