BICOM

An IDF officer was mistakenly identified as a terrorist on the border with the Gaza Strip and shot dead by fellow Israeli troops early this morning.

The unnamed officer, who was commanding information gathering forces near the border, was wrongly thought to have been an infiltrator by both intelligence forces and troops from the Givati infantry brigade in the area. As recently as last week, explosives have been planted along the Gaza border fence and detonated targeting Israeli border controls.

The IDF Spokesperson said the circumstances surrounding the incident were being investigated and that the officer’s family had been notified of his death. Speaking to Army Radio, Brig. Gen. (res.) Tzvika Fogel, former head of IDF Southern Command commented, “The price of preventing infiltration to [Israeli] communities and harm to citizens is a very heavy price,” adding that the Gaza border area is “tense and no one can take chances.”

Underscoring the tension in the area, a Code Red warning siren was sounded in the Eshkol region near the Gaza Strip early this morning. However, no fallen rockets or missiles have yet been found in the area. During the past month, there has been a sharp increase in rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on southern Israel and in attacks on IDF border patrols. This has included a salvo of five rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, which was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system and two rockets which were fired shortly after the conclusion of Ariel Sharon’s funeral. In response, Israel recently launched its first pre-emptive strikes for some time, targeting Islamic Jihad operatives responsible for a number of rocket attacks.

Last week, head of IDF Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi emphasised the danger Israel faces from rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip and elsewhere, commenting that “Some 170,000 rockets and missiles are threatening the State of Israel from all regions.”