Two Israeli officers from a commando unit were killed in a so-called friendly fire accident at a base in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank late Wednesday night, the Israel Defense Forces said, Report informs via The Times of Israel.
According to the military, the officers — both company commanders in the elite Egoz unit — were performing a patrol at roughly 11 p.m. around their base, known as Nabi Mussa, just north of the Dead Sea after a training exercise. As they were walking, they spotted what they thought was a suspicious figure, but was in fact another officer.
The officers attempted to arrest this “suspect,” first calling for him to halt and then firing their weapons into the air, according to the military.
This third officer, hearing the shots but apparently not knowing they were fired by fellow soldiers, then shot back, fatally wounding both of them.
“The officers were killed after a mistaken identification led to a friendly fire incident,” the IDF said in a statement.
Describing the incident as “painful and unfortunate,” IDF Spokesperson Ran Kochav told the Kan radio broadcaster on Thursday morning that the military would investigate the circumstances but had yet to name an officer to lead the probe.
In addition to consoling the families of the officers who were killed, Kochav said that the military would be compassionate toward the officer who mistakenly killed them.
“We will need to embrace the officer, to take care of him, to show that we are protecting him. He, of course, did this accidentally, resulting in the deaths of his friends,” Kochav said.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed his condolences to the families of the fallen officers, promising a thorough investigation.