IDF says forces fired at Red Cross building due to incorrect identification
According to the IDF, troops on the ground thought they saw suspicious figures near the building and felt they were endangered.
The IDF on Monday night admitted to firing mistakenly on an International Red Cross facility in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The ICRC first reported the incident around 5:00 p.m.
It noted that its building is well identified both physically on the ground and also by pre-planning with IDF commanders.
According to the IDF admission, sent out around 8:30 p.m., the troops on the ground thought they saw suspicious figures in the vicinity of the building and felt they were endangered.
The IDF did not specify how or why they felt endangered and, in fact, acknowledged that the soldiers had made a mistaken identification, such that it is likely that the "suspicious" persons from the ICRC were unarmed.
This means that either those soldiers failed to solicit necessary humanitarian facilities information or some of their commanders neglected to provide them with that information.
IDF investigating the incident
The military said that the incident is being probed.Both the ICRC and the IDF noted that no one had been harmed, but the ICRC said that the facility had been damaged by shelling.
