A civilian contractor working for the Israeli Defense Ministry in the Gaza Strip was killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday after being mistaken for a terrorist operative during operations in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, according to the military.
Kobi Avitan, 39, from Eilat, was killed while carrying out “engineering work for the IDF on behalf of the Ministry of Defense,” the army said.
The Military Advocate General’s Office has ordered a probe into the incident by the Military Police Corps, according to the statement.
“The IDF shares in the grief of the family,” it added.
Avitan was operating a tractor in the Netzarim Corridor, that divides northern from southern Gaza and from which the IDF partially withdrew on Monday morning, when Israeli forces falsely identified him as a hostile operative, according to Ynet.
Avitan leaves behind a wife and three children, one of whom is only 10 months old, according to the report. A date has reportedly not been set yet for the funeral, as the family is waiting for his brother, who was abroad.
Avitan’s death marked the first deadly incident for Israel in the coastal enclave since Jan. 13, when five members of the army’s Nahal Brigade were killed in action fighting Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.
The death toll among Israeli forces since the start of the IDF ground incursion in Gaza on Oct. 27, 2023, currently stands at 408, and at 841 on all fronts since the Hamas-led terrorist assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Additionally, civilian contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May, and Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June.
