20 IDF troops killed by friendly fire, accidents in Gaza ground op - report

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) lost 20 troops during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip as a result of operational accidents that include incidents of friendly fire, a "shooting deviation" and military vehicle accidents, Army Radio reported on Tuesday.

Hence, out of 105 fallen Israeli soldiers announced killed in the ground offensive in Gaza, about a fifth of them died not from enemy hands.

Of the fatal incident, 13 of them are said to have been killed in "two-sided friendly fire shooting incidents" when a soldier is mistakenly identified as a terrorist. The incidents occurred during airstrikes, tank or infantry fire.

A soldier was reported killed in a "shooting deviation," in which a bullet was fired by Israeli forces in his direction, hitting by accident. Then two more are reported to have been killed by heavy-machine-gun fire.

Furthermore, two troops were killed in accidents involving military vehicles, being runover by tanks and APCs. And the breakdown concluded that shrapnel from the IDF killed two more soldiers.

The Israeli military explains this number of casualties by a large number of troops in the field, the nature of the combat and the forces' fatigue. Other factors mentioned are lack of operations discipline and poor coordination between the forces.

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