IDF officer, mistaken for terrorist, killed near Gaza by friendly fire

Israel Defense Forces Captain Tal Nachman, 21, from Nes Ziona, was killed in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a friendly fire incident that took place during a routine assignment near the Israel-Gaza Strip border. The IDF has launched an inquest.

Nachman, an officer with the Field Intelligence Corps, and his unit were embedded with the Gaza Brigade. According to Army Radio, at the time of the incident, the troops were on a routine patrol in the area to thwart attempts by terrorists to place explosives near the border.

Initial details suggest that a Givati force spotted a suspicious movement on top of an armored personnel carrier parked near a group of soldiers. The soldiers mistook Nachman, who was sleeping on the APC's roof, for a terrorist attempting to get close to the soldiers, and opened fire in his direction. He was fatally wounded and died at the scene.

Former chief of the IDF's Southern Command headquarters Col. Zvi Fogel told Army Radio: "You can't think of this solely as an operational error. There is great uncertainty in that area and no one can afford to take any chances. When you think you see someone crossing the fence, you have very little operational leeway because it is so close to Israeli communities."

"There is heavy deployment near the Gaza Strip to prevent the possibility of terrorist infiltration," Fogel said. "It is possible that the troops were not fully coordinated and that one unit didn't know where the other one was. These soldiers are highly trained professionals who spare no effort to protect us, but sometimes, the price we pay for preventing infiltration into Israeli communities is a very heavy one."

Nachman was to be laid to rest at the Nes Ziona military cemetery on Tuesday afternoon.