2 Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire
The incident comes less than a week after two Israeli pilots were killed in a helicopter crash off Haifa.
Two Israel Defense Force officers were killed in a friendly fire accident near a base in the West Bank on Wednesday night, Israel’s military said.
Ofek Aharon, 28, and Itamar Elharar, 26, died after being shot by a third person they approached during a patrol outside the IDF base at Nabi Mussa on the Dead Sea around 11 p.m. Both were majors and company commanders.
The shooter was another IDF officer, the military said, who mistook his two comrades for attackers. The IDF originally said the two had attempted to arrest the other officer, but then retracted that statement.
The head of IDF Central Command, Yehuda Fuchs, said military investigators believe the third officer opened fire first, according to the Times of Israel.
