Mistaken for a Palestinian, Israeli soldier killed by friendly fire in northern occupied West Bank

An Israeli soldier was shot and killed on Tuesday by soldiers of his unit at an Israeli checkpoint near the city of Tulkarem, north of the occupied West Bank.
 
Israeli media quoted the Israeli forces' spokesperson saying that the 20-year-old soldier had left his post to pray. Once he returned to the base, one of his fellow soldiers mistook him for a Palestinian and began to follow "arrest protocol".
 
According to Israeli reports, the confusion led to a shooting that severely wounded the soldier, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Last night, trigger happy Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed one of their own, near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.

They suspected him of being Palestinian, which is why they fired the lethal shots... pic.twitter.com/5do2LiOkVR

— Jalal (@JalalAK_jojo) August 16, 2022

The incident was initially misreported as "a shooting attack" against Israeli soldiers by the Israeli media, and local sources said that Israeli forces had begun to deploy troops in search of the attackers.
 
"The checkpoint is just a four-minute walk from my home and farm," Fayez Taneeb, a Palestinian farmer from the village of Irtah, just outside Tulkarem, told The New Arab.
 
"When news arrived that a soldier was killed, people in the town thought it was a Palestinian attack, and everybody panicked that the Israeli army was going to raid Tulkarem," said Taneeb.

"People began to prepare for an Israeli incursion into the city and started to close doors, but then nothing of that happened, and life returned to normal," he added.

Breaking: reports of IDF searching dor possible suspects in Tulkarem after the drive by shooting at IDF soldiers near by. pic.twitter.com/FMSAmsoWik

— Chaim •‎ ‏حاييم • חיים (@ChaimSmierc) August 15, 2022

The checkpoint is at the Israeli separation wall. It is closed to Palestinians from the West Bank who want to cross into Israel but occasionally opens for Palestinians from Israel who cross into the West Bank.

The checkpoint is part of a series of checkpoints along the Israeli separation wall, two of which are near the city of Tulkarem.
 
Last May, a Palestinian worker from Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, was killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to cross the separation wall near Tulkarem at one of the checkpoints.

Tulkarem: The IDF is reporting that after a preliminary investigation this wasn’t a terror attack but rather accidental friendly fire between IDF forces.

— Chaim •‎ ‏حاييم • חיים (@ChaimSmierc) August 15, 2022