IDF says ‘misunderstanding’ led troops to kill Hamas member on border

The Israeli military says a “misunderstanding” led its troops to kill a member of the Hamas terror group as he was trying to prevent Palestinian youths from breaching the security fence.

The highly irregular acknowledgment of this kind of mistake appears to be an effort by the Israel Defense Forces to calm tensions along the Gaza border and prevent another round of violence.

“This morning, IDF troops identified a number of Palestinians in the area of the security fence in the northern Strip. An initial investigation determined that this was an operative of Hamas’s restraint force who had come to the area because of two Palestinians who were moving toward [the fence],” the army says.

At this point, the Israeli soldiers opened fire at the Hamas member, fatally wounding him. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

“The IDF troops who arrived to the area had identified the restraint operative as an armed terrorist and opened fire due to a misunderstanding. The incident will be investigated,” the army says.

— Judah Ari Gross