Zein Khalil and Mohammad Sio
28 January 2025•Update: 29 January 2025
JERUSALEM
The Israeli army “accidentally” killed an Israeli worker on Tuesday from a construction company in the central Gaza Strip, according to media reports.
“Earlier today a worker from a construction company carrying out engineering tasks for the Israeli army, commissioned by the Ministry of Defense, was killed in central Gaza,” the army said in a statement.
“A military police investigation has been opened into the incident under the direction of the military prosecution,” it added without providing details about the circumstances of the death.
The Israel Hayom newspaper identified the victim as 38-year-old Jacob Avitan.
Channel 12 cited initial investigations that suggested Avitan was killed in an operational accident, where he was shot due to a misidentification by Israeli forces.
The report said he was shot by soldiers while working in the Nitzarim Corridor in central Gaza.
The Israeli military withdrew from most of the Nitzarim Corridor on Monday, allowing more than 300,000 displaced civilians to return to northern Gaza under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.
The first six-week phase of the truce took effect Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
