Shin Bet officer off the hook for mistakenly killing comrade

The Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department have closed the case against a Shin Bet security service officer who mistakenly shot and killed a fellow agent due to lack of evidence, reports said Sunday.

The incident took place outside the Gaza Strip two and a half weeks ago.

The slain officer, 29-year-old Amir Maimoni, had been on a “necessary and complex mission” near the coastal enclave, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen revealed in a eulogy during Maimoni’s funeral.

“Unfortunately, there was a tragic operational development that took place last night during a mission in the field,” he said.

“As a result, a fellow Shin Bet officer misidentified [Maimoni] and shot at Amir, hitting him,” Cohen said. “All efforts to revive him were for naught.”

Army Radio reported that Maimoni was hit during an alert over a suspected infiltration from Gaza into Israel, but this report was not confirmed.

Maimoni was from Zohar, a small community in southern Israel near Kiryat Gat.

Earlier in the day, his father described Amir to Ynet news as “an angel in the form of a human, a perfect person.”

Maimoni had joined the Shin Bet two years prior, against the recommendation of his father, who wanted him to work for the Agriculture Ministry.

“I asked him to stay at the Agriculture Ministry. I said to him, ‘Why do you need to put yourself in danger?'” his father told Ynet.

“But he told me, ‘Dad, money isn’t everything in this world. I want to do something that I love.'”