The Israeli military said Thursday that five soldiers were killed and seven injured in a friendly fire incident in northern Gaza, amid renewed battles in the area against regrouped Hamas militants.
“An initial investigation into the deaths of five IDF soldiers reveals that IDF tanks, located dozens of meters away, identified a weapon and fired shells at an IDF force nearby,” the IDF said in a statement.
“This force had entered the northern part of Gaza and occupied buildings along a logistic route. The tanks fired two shells for unclear reasons, resulting in seven more soldiers being injured, three severely.”
Do we know the number of IDF soldiers involved in total to arrive at the friendly fire casualties? Are we approaching more Israeli deaths from Friendly Fired than from Israeli citizens that were victims of Hamas in the original incursion on Oct 6th?
First question I think is misunderstanding the claim. To clarify, according to the article, 15% of all IDF casualties are from friendly fire, not 15% of ALL soldiers have been friendly fired.
The second one? Nah. IDF’s total casualties are only like 6 or 700.
I found a bit more info, but older.
“Nearly a fifth of Israeli fatalities since the invasion of Gaza in late October were caused by friendly fire or accidents, accounting for 36 of the 188 soldiers killed at the time of the report. Experts say it’s one of the highest such percentages in recent military history.”
This report is from the end of Jan 2024.
source
I found a more recent one that says 278 killed. Not sure where I saw the 600 number. Also 1,700 wounded in case that’s relevant.