Evacuated by helicopter to hospital (archives)
Photo courtesy of panet.co.il
Soldier killed by misfire at northern base
Investigating Military Police suspect Golani Brigade fighter shot in back as two other troops play with rifle. Soldier undergoes six-hour surgery, but doctors forced to proclaim him dead
Twenty-year-old Sergeant Or Hadad from Beit Dagan was seriously injured Thursday afternoon and later died of his wounds, after being shot in the back at an Israel Defense Forces base in the Golan Heights.
According to suspicions, one of the Golani Brigade soldier's comrades accidentally shot him while playing with his weapon.
An initial investigation into the incident revealed that two soldiers were dealing with a weapon while in an open area. It is unclear whether they were playing with it or trying to clean it.
For an unknown reason, a bullet fired from the weapon hit a third soldier sitting in a nearby tent in the back and infiltrated his chest.
A Magen David Adom emergency crew dispatched to the area attended to the soldier together with a local medical team. The soldier was then rushed byu helicopter to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed.
Dr. Hussein Amar, head of the hospital's emergency room, told Ynet that "the soldier arrived at the hospital in very serious condition. After we managed to slightly stabilize his condition, he was immediately rushed to the operating room, where we tried to fight for his life and stop internal bleeding in the chest area as a result of the injury."
The soldier was operated on for six hours, but doctors were eventually forced to proclaim him dead.
The Investigating Military Police launched a probe into the incident and questioned soldiers who were present near the scene of the accident. An IDF source stressed that even during regular training sessions, commanders make certain to instruct their soldiers to treat their weapons with caution.
