Army changes assessment after initially saying she was killed by Palestinian mortar fire.
By YAAKOV KATZgaza tunnel air strike smoke 248.88(photo credit: AP [file])
The 17-year-old Palestinian teenager who was killed on Thursday evening during a fire exchange along the Gaza border may have been killed by IDF fire, and not by Palestinian mortar fire as was initially stated, the latest assessment of the IDF said.
The military said Nahal Brigade troops had responded with gunfire and mortar shells after they came under fire from terrorists near the Nahal Oz crossing, but did not use tanks.
Earlier, the IDF said mortar shells fired by the soldiers landed in open areas in the Gaza Strip. Eleven Palestinians were wounded in the incident. The army added that all of the mortar shells fired by the Palestinians landed inside the Strip.
Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said the person killed was a 17-year-old woman, and one of the people wounded was a three-year-old girl.
Shortly after the event took place, Hamas announced that the person killed was actually a three-year-old girl.
The Hamas claim could not be independently verified.
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