IDF soldier killed by friendly fire in incident near Tulkarm

BJERUSALEM POST STAFF

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The incident had originally been reported as a shooting attack but was later confirmed not to have been a terrorist act.

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IDF operating in the West Bank to arrest terror suspects, August 11, 2022. / (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

An IDF soldier was killed, most likely by friendly fire, near the city of Tulkarm in the Menasha regional division, West Bank, on Monday night according to the IDF spokesperson unit.

The soldier’s family was notified of his passing later on Monday night.

According to IDF Spokesman Ran Kochav in an interview with Army Radio, the soldier left his guard post, but when he came back, his fellow soldier didn’t recognize him and carried out the procedure for approaching suspicious individuals and ultimately shot him.

It was initially reported the incident was a shooting attack that was carried out from a passing vehicle and that security forces were on the hunt for the shooters – but later the IDF updated that this wasn’t an attack but a case of friendly fire.

The wounded soldier was taken to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba – where he was later pronounced dead. The IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi is expected to visit the site of the incident on Tuesday as part of the investigation conducted by the IDF.

“Unfortunately, the fighter died of his wounds in the hospital.”

Senior IDF official
“Unfortunately, the fighter died of his wounds in the hospital,” A senior military official told Walla! “As far as I understand, the soldier was hit by two bullets and one of them was fatal. At first they thought it was fired from the Palestinian side, but later we ruled out the suspicion of an attack and the direction we are investigating is that there was a shooting between the soldiers.”

Two officers were killed in a friendly fire incident earlier this year
In January, two IDF officers were killed in what the military called a “serious” friendly fire accident in the Jordan Valley.

“The officers were killed after a mistaken identification led to a friendly fire incident,” the military said.

The two officers were identified as 28-year-old Maj. Ofek Aharon and 26-year-old Maj. Itamar Elharar, platoon commanders in the Oz Brigade’s Egoz Unit.

Later in January, two Israeli Border Police officers were lightly wounded by IDF fire during an attempt to thwart smuggling along the Egyptian border.

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Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.

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