An Israeli army investigatory panel has failed to establish the cause of a “friendly fire” incident last month in southern Lebanon that left four soldiers dead and three injured.
The circumstances surrounding the tragic incident two weeks ago will probably never be known, according to a report published Wednesday by an Israel Defense Force commission of investigation appointed by the chief of staff.
The accident occurred when two separate groups of Israeli soldiers mistakenly attacked each other during a search and ambush operation for Hezbollah guerrillas.
The IDF probe, headed by Maj. Gen. Yoram Yair, said that despite the investigation and attempts to reconstruct the incident, it was not possible to establish what led to the shooting between the squads of a paratrooper unit that had split into two.
The report said the accident was probably due to a combination of several factors, and it was impossible to establish who was to blame and what exactly went wrong.
The commission presented its findings the day after State Comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat agreed to an appeal by the Knesset’s State Control Committee that she examine IDF training exercises and operations.
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