JERUSALEM: An Israeli military probe published Wednesday said that friendly fire may have killed an Israeli settler during a deadly clash with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month.
The violence in the Palestinian village of Tell in the northern West Bank in late July left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead, prompting the army to launch an investigation.
“The findings … determined that it is not possible to establish conclusively the cause of CPT (Res.) Benayahu Mellet’s fatal injury,” the army report read.
Mellet, a settler as well as an army reservist, died shortly after a Palestinian wrestled his rifle from him during the clash between Tell residents and around 20 settlers who had entered the village, the army said.
“He may have been killed either by terrorist fire or by incidental fire during efforts to neutralize the terrorists,” the army report read, referring to the local Palestinians.
