Two Israeli soldiers using a traffic app to find their way mistakenly entered a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank overnight, sparking clashes that killed one Palestinian and wounded 15 people, officials said Tuesday.
The two soldiers travelling in a jeep entered the Qalandia refugee camp and were targeted with rocks and Molotov cocktails, Israeli officials claimed.
Israeli reinforcements were then urgently deployed to the camp between Jerusalem and Ramallah to rescue them, provoking further clashes that lasted hours.
The two soldiers were later rescued unharmed.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said the soldiers “apparently used Waze,” the Israeli-developed navigation app now owned by Google. The military said it was investigating.
Waze however said the soldiers themselves were at fault, with a setting that tells the app to avoid “dangerous areas” having been turned off and the driver having deviated from the suggested route.
With the threat of two of their soldiers being kidnapped or killed, Israeli forces were quickly dispatched.
According to an Israeli police spokeswoman, Palestinians threw homemade explosives and shot at the rescue team, which also opened fire.
The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and 10 wounded. The dead man was identified as Eyad Omar Sajdia, a 22-year-old student.
Five Israeli border police were also wounded, one of them seriously, police said.
