The officer, in command of an intelligence reconnaissance team in the Gaza Division, was performing scouting duties with a Givati squad covering the team.

During the security mission, Givati soldiers occasionally left their armored personnel carrier (APC), and surveyed the area around them where the reconnaissance soldiers were working.

On one of those tours, a soldier said he saw a suspicious figure on top of the APC, which he thought was a militant.

The soldier then opened fire, and the officer, who was resting on top of the APC, wearing an armored vest, was hit in the back and died from his wounds on the way to hospital.

The investigation also revealed that the suspicious figure on top of the APC was one of the reconnaissance soldiers who went inside the vehicle to retrieve something and then returned to the top of the APC.

BA/BA