Probe: Friendly fire cause of soldier's injury in Gaza

Initial Southern Command investigation finds Armored Corps soldiers who killed two Palestinians near border later opened fire on group of paratroopers they mistook for terrorists

Hanan Greenberg|Published: 12.12.10 , 19:34

An initial investigation conducted by the IDF Southern Command found that the Armored Corps force which killed two Palestinian terrorists along the Gaza border on Saturday mistakenly opened fire on a group of IDF soldiers, injuring one of them seriously.

According to the findings, while combing the area after the initial incident, the force mistook the soldiers for terrorists and opened fire on them with assault rifles.

The injured soldier remains hospitalized at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

During the incident, which occurred at around 9 pm, soldiers manning an observation point spotted the two terrorists approaching the security fence and alerted an Armored Corps force. After killing the terrorists with tank fire, the force proceeded to comb an area inside Palestinian territory. Soldiers belonging to the Paratrooper Brigade's 202nd Battalion made their way to the scene, and the Armored Corps force mistook them for the terrorists who were killed earlier.

The fact that the incident occurred when it was dark out also added to the confusion.

Initially it was thought that the injured soldier was hit by Palestinian sniper fire.

A similar incident took place about six months ago near the Kissufim crossing, when Armored Corps soldier Gavriel Chepitch was killed by friendly fire. Golani Brigade troops who arrived at the scene mistook Chepitch for a terrorist and shot him dead.