IDF soldier mistakenly enters Palestinian town, returned by PA police

An Israel Defense Forces soldier mistakenly entered a Palestinian town on Friday during a run.

The soldier, who was wearing running clothes and not in uniform, was later returned to his unit by police from the Palestinian Authority.

The incident took place in Beit Ummar, northwest of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

There were no reports of injury or violence towards the soldier.

A number of soldiers have mistakenly entered Palestinian areas in recent years, with some of them encountering violence. Many of the incidents occurred as a result of the soldiers relying on smartphone navigation apps to get them to their destinations.

In March, an IDF soldier accidentally drove into the village of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, with residents surrounding his vehicle and pelting it with rocks, before he was rescued by Palestinian security forces. The soldier was lightly injured in the incident

Earlier that same month, another IDF soldier was lightly wounded when rocks were thrown at his truck, after he and another serviceman mistakenly drove into the Palestinian village of Beit Fajjar in the southern West Bank.

In that case, the pair were able to exit the Palestinian village without assistance, meeting up with additional troops nearby.

In September 2016, two female soldiers entered Tulkarem and sustained mild injuries from rocks thrown at them before they were rescued by local Palestinian police and Defense Ministry officials. An initial probe of that incident revealed that not only had the two soldiers relied on a navigation app, but they had entered Tulkarem unarmed.

In a more serious incident, in February 2016, one Palestinian was killed and several injured in clashes in the Qalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem sparked by an attempt to rescue lost soldiers.

Each time, the IDF repeats the importance of not relying solely on traffic navigation apps such as Waze.