A Hamas member acting to turn away Palestinians who approached the Gaza Strip's border with Israel was shot to death by the Israeli army on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that a force opened fire toward the 28-year-old Mahmoud al-Adham due to a "misidentification."
According to the military, "Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the scene and identified the Hamas member as an armed terrorist. They carried out a shooting that stemmed from a misunderstanding. The incident will be investigated."
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Gaza's Health Ministry reported that al-Adham died of his wounds after he was shot east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Strip.
A Hamas source told Haaretz that al-Adham was shot when he was chasing after two young Palestinians who approached the border fence in order to stop them from crossing over into Israeli territory, in order to maintain the understandings reached between Israel and Hamas.
Al-Adham was a member of Hamas' military wing, which accused Israel of intentionally opening fire to "hurt one of our fighters who was carrying out his job in preventing [Palestinians] from breaching the border fence."
The Israeli army confirmed this, stating that "an intial investigation shows that a Hamas member approached the border fence area following two Palestinians who were moving close to the fence."
The military's confirmation comes after it initially said that it fired toward armed individuals who approached the border fence, but didn't know of any killed Hamas members.
Hamas's military wing said that "we are assessing the situation and stress that we will not let this incident pass by without a response."
The Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, called al-Adham's death a "grave escalation" and threatened to retaliate.
Last month, Israeli army troops mistakenly fired at Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, wounding one. In that incident too, the army admitted a mistake in identification. At the time, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh condemned the incident, warning of "dangerous escalation" on Israel's part, threatening Palestinian sovereignty.
The incident comes amid a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and a period of relative quiet. The reason for the lull in aggression is likely Israel's decision to increase the number of Palestinian laborers from the Strip who are allowed to work in the country.
Israel has also expanded the fishing zone off Gaza to 15 nautical miles from the shore, in a gesture meant to quell tensions which comes as "part of the civilian policy to prevent a humanitarian deterioration in the Gaza Strip," as stated by the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories.
On Tuesday, Hamas launched a drill "to test the readiness" of its forces "for a scenario of an extensive attempt to harm public order and stability in the Gaza Strip."
A joint statement from Palestinian factions in Gaza said that troops were called up and put on standby to test the readiness of the home front, and information from the field shows that the results were positive.
On Friday, the Gaza Heatlh Ministry reported that 40 Palestinians were wounded by Israel Defense Forces fire in protests along the Gaza border, in which four protesters breached the fence, one carrying a knife. Two were arrested, while the other two returned to Gaza before forces could apprehend them.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-army-admits-unintentionally-killing-hamas-member-in-gaza-1.7491623
2019-07-11 12:35:00Z
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