Lost Israel troops stray into camp, sparking confrontations

QALANDYA, Palestinian Territories — Two Israeli soldiers said to be using a traffic app mistakenly entered a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank overnight, sparking confrontations that killed one Palestinian and wounded 15 people, officials said Tuesday.

The two soldiers travelling in a jeep entered the Qalandya Refugee Camp and were targeted with rocks and Molotov cocktails, Israeli officials said.

Israeli reinforcements were then deployed to the camp between occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah to rescue them, provoking further confrontations 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.

It was not clear whether the app led them into the camp and the military said it was investigating. Waze includes an option to "avoid dangerous areas".

According to an Israeli forces spokesperson, Palestinians threw home-made 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 soldiers were also wounded, one of them seriously, Israeli forces said.

A trail of blood could be seen extending down a wall from a roof where Sajdia was believed to have been when he was shot. 

The narrow roads of the camp were littered with rocks and other debris, and all stores were closed ahead of the planned funeral.

The two soldiers who first entered the camp abandoned their jeep, with one hiding in the courtyard of a house and shooting to defend himself and signal his position, the military spokesman said.

The other fled towards the nearby Israeli settlement of Kochav Yaakov.

‘Didn’t know the terrain’ 

The soldiers’ mishap made headlines in Israel.

“They apparently used Waze, which indicated a shortcut from Jerusalem to Ramallah,” Yaalon said at a conference, according to his office.

“They didn’t know the terrain. We have to verify who sent them on the mission, what they knew and what they didn’t know and how to respond when, in modern times, Waze shows you the way.”

Waze did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israeli raids on Qalandya to arrest suspects have sparked heavy confrontations in the past. 

The camp is located just beyond a checkpoint separating occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The heavily fortified crossing is a hated symbol of the Israeli occupation for Palestinians.

Qalandya camp was established in 1949 in the wake of the creation of Israel over Palestinian lands and has grown into a densely populated town with 11,000 registered refugees.

Nearly one in five residents is unemployed, according to the UN, and around 60 per cent are under 25 years old.

A wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 178 Palestinians as well as 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean, according to an AFP toll.