Israeli military says mix-up caused fatal shooting of Palestinian toddler

Jerusalem, June 15 The Israeli military said that a mix-up led to a soldier's "unintentional" killing of a Palestinian toddler earlier this month as the trooper believed he was firing at Palestinian gunmen.

Two-year-old Mohammad al-Tamimi was shot in the head while riding in a car with his father near the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 1, and died of his wounds four days later in an Israeli hospital, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the killing was a crime and demanded an international investigation.

In an examination report published by the Israeli military on Wednesday, it said two Palestinian gunmen fired that night at the Israeli settlement of Neve Tzuf and soldiers.

During the search after the gunmen, an officer noticed "a suspicious vehicle and fired several times into the air", before another soldier who heard the shots opened fire on Tamimi's family car, the report said.

"The soldier thought they were the terrorists fleeing the scene and that they were firing at him from the vehicle," it added.

Blaming miscommunication and "inadequacies in the commanders' control and command over the incident", the report noted that the officer who shot in the air will be reprimanded for violating orders.

The incident came amid escalating violence between Israelis and Palestin in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

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