Elite cop hurt in Jenin may have been hit by friendly fire

Israeli security forces were investigating Tuesday whether an elite police officer wounded by gunfire during an arrest operation in the West Bank city of Jenin late Monday night was hit by friendly fire, according to military sources quoted by Hebrew media. Initial reports had indicated he was injured in a firefight with Palestinian militants.

The wounded officer was evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. He arrived fully conscious, and after undergoing CT scans and other tests was taken to surgery for a bullet wound in the lower body. His condition was listed as moderate and stable.

In a statement Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said that “gunshots were reportedly fired in the vicinity” of the forces operating in Jenin.

Initial reports by Palestinian media said at least six Palestinians were shot dead in an exchange of fire with the Israeli forces. However, a Palestinian security official did not confirm any dead, saying only that five people had been hospitalized for tear gas inhalation.

The military said a violent riot by “hundreds of Palestinians” erupted in the city and that the crowd hurled rocks and Molotov cocktail at the forces.

BREAKING PHOTOS: Casualties in Jenin as IDF came under Palestinian fire during an arrest operation, situation ongoing pic.twitter.com/xVTj1MEddY

— Israel News Feed (@IsraelHatzolah) August 31, 2015

According to the Palestinians, the Israeli forces surrounded several homes and then fired missiles at two of them.

The homes encircled by the Israeli forces were reportedly those of Bassem Saadi, a formerly imprisoned senior Islamic Jihad terrorist, and the Hamas-affiliated Majdi and Alaa Abu al-Hija. The Hija brothers are the sons of imprisoned Hamas leader Jamal Abu al-Hija; their older brother Hamza Abu al-Hija was killed in a shootout with the IDF last year.

According to reports in Palestinian media, Saadi’s home was demolished by troops during the operation. Others reports said that the al-Hija family home had been destroyed as well.

The IDF did not name the target of the raid in its statement.

“During the activity, after repeated calls to surrender himself to the forces, security forces demolished the house in which the wanted terrorist was suspectedly hiding,” the statement said.

An unnamed defense official told the Hebrew-language NRG news site that “we’re looking into the possibility that the wounded fighter was hurt by fire from the troops. Even though police commandos know how to get the job done when they’re spread out 360 degrees around the target, it’s possible that one of them misidentified [the other].” It is also possible, the source added, “that the commando was hurt by fire from the terrorists inside the house.”

A Palestinian official confirmed that a local Hamas leader and his brother were arrested. He said soldiers tried to arrest a member of Islamic Jihad but couldn’t find him.

Shortly after dawn Tuesday, in what was may have been a retaliation for the Jenin operation, Palestinians fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip. Sirens blared in the western Negev but the rocket apparently landed inside the Gaza Strip.