Israeli soldiers have been killed in one of the deadliest friendly fire incidents of the Gaza war.
Seven more were wounded – three critically – when two tanks opened fire on them by mistake. The dead, all aged between 20 and 22, were part of an ultra-orthodox company of paratroops from the 202nd Battalion.
An army statement said the tanks fired two shells into a building being used as an HQ by the deputy battalion commander. It continued: “It appears the tank fighters identified a gun barrel coming out of one of the windows and directed each other to shoot at it.”
Last night a spokesman said: “We are still investigating.” The deaths bring to 278 the number of Israeli troops killed in the war against Hamas.
Another 348 were among 1,200 killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which started the conflict. The latest deaths were in Jabalia, northern Gaza, where terrorists had regrouped after being driven out. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the area since Saturday, when Israel began air strikes to retake it. Troops moved in on Monday.
Fighting there and in the south-ern town of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians had taken shelter, has intensified in recent days. Some 600,000 Palestinians have since fled Rafah and another 100,000 have been newly displaced by fresh fighting in the north.
Six Israeli soldiers died in January when a truck carrying explosives detonated. A month earlier Israeli troops shot and killed three hostages they mistook for Hamas fighters. The terrorist group said 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 70,000 injured since it launched its attack on Israel.
It was also reported earlier today that the US military has completed a temporary pier to get aid to Palestinians and anchored it to a beach off Gaza as Israel continues attacking the enclave.
Officials said they are poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into Gaza. The construction of the pier was ordered two months ago by Joe Biden during his State of the Union address to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in.
Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on the southern city, located on the Egyptian border, complicating aid shipments. US troops anchored the pier at 7.40am local time on Thursday, according to the military's Central Command, which stressed none of its forces entered the Gaza Strip.