Israeli Soldier Kills Israeli by Mistake

Each man thought the other was an attacker
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 22, 2015 12:11 AM CDT
Israeli Soldier Kills Israeli by Mistake
A Palestinian man stands on his balcony as he looks at a concrete barrier between an Arab neighborhood and a Jewish area in east Jerusalem on Sunday.   (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An Israeli soldier shot and killed a Jewish man he suspected was a Palestinian "terrorist" in Jerusalem, police said Thursday. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says soldiers deployed in Jerusalem to reinforce police amid a spate of near-daily Palestinian stabbing attacks demanded late Wednesday that the man show them his ID. The man refused, scuffled with the soldiers, and then attempted to seize one of their weapons. One soldier shot the man, who later died of his wounds, Rosenfeld says. "The soldiers had high suspicions that he was a terrorist," he says. The BBC reports that the incident began on a bus, where the man who was shot apparently mistook the soldiers for would-be attackers.

The Palestinian attacks have Israelis on edge. When an Arab citizen of Israel opened fire at a bus station in southern Israel on Sunday, killing an Israeli soldier, a private security guard shot an Eritrean migrant he thought was an attacker. As the man lay on the ground dying, a mob of people cursed him, kicked him, and hit him with objects. Four suspects are due in court Thursday over the beating. In a separate incident, police say two Palestinians stabbed and wounded an Israeli at a bus stop on Thursday after they tried to board a bus ferrying children to school. Police shot the two men, one of whom later died while the other was seriously wounded. (An Israeli cafe is trying to make peace by offering half-price hummus to Jews and Arabs dining together.)

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