Metal thieves this week managed to rip 200 whole meters of copper cables from the train's signaling systems near the town of Lehavim in the south.
Occasionally, metal thieves across the country manage to carry out extensive theft that causes hundreds of thousands of shekels in damage.
This time, the theft was discovered on the night between Monday and Tuesday by Ethi the train at the control center, due to a halt in the signaling system work.
A patrol team dispatched to the scene reported the theft, and police entered the photo.
However, since there are no security cameras in place, there is no documentation of the thieves at the time of the act.
As a result, the Israel Railways announced that train traffic at Kiryat Gat, Lehavim-Rahat and Beer Sheva stations had been temporarily suspended, and shuttles had been sent to the stations for the benefit of passengers.
Only towards ten o'clock in the morning, after the company crews had redeployed the cables and reconnected the systems that had been shut down, did train traffic return to normal.
"The damage is enormous," said a source on Israel Railways.
"This is a significant theft, like the one that occurred near Lod three years ago. The damage is also due to loss of traffic, damage to passengers and society, damage to the safety of trains and so on. This is a known phenomenon, and not only we suffer from it."
In recent times there have been more and more complaints from companies in the economy about metal theft.
Just earlier this month there was a significant theft in the north of IEC cables and transformers, which cut off power supply for long hours in the northern and northern coastal area.
Communications and satellite broadcasters also reported thefts.
The phenomenon is also known in the IDF, which has previously reported the theft of cables and metallic equipment from bases, which in at least one case affected the operation of important protection and warning systems. Additional thefts occur in monuments, monuments, infrastructure systems and so on.
"Take almost everything"
The police attribute the activity to the increase in the price of metals and copper in the world.
According to a source in the field: "The theft is mainly for economic reasons, but we do not rule out the possibility that this is a nationalist and security background. There is an increase all over the country - mainly of copper, because it is probably in demand now, but metal thieves take almost everything."
"In recent years there has been a hundred percent increase in thefts in the south. The war in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia, as well as 'orders' from various countries around the world, are exacerbating the phenomenon. In many cases the stolen metal moves to PA, , Said the source.
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