TEL AVIV — A Palestinian was shot dead during a riot sparked when two Israeli soldiers got lost using a cellphone navigation app and strayed into refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, officials said Tuesday.
Clashes broke out after the two soldiers accidentally entered the Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, on Monday night, with a "mob" directing gunfire, rocks, and Molotov cocktails at their military vehicle, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said.
"Even if you use a navigation program, you still need to know how to navigate with a map"
A "large" number of Israeli military forces were sent to extract the pair, who escaped their vehicle on foot and were later found and picked up by the reinforcements, the IDF added.
Their vehicle was set ablaze, five Israeli border policemen were injured, and the IDF said that in response security forces "fired toward the direction" of the oncoming gunfire.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said one Palestinian was shot and killed and four others were wounded by live ammunition. Another 12 were injured by rubber bullets, according to the ministry.
An IDF spokesperson told NBC News they were aware of the reports that one person had been killed but declined to comment further.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the two soldiers used the cellphone app Waze to get from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Ramallah, some 10 miles to the north.
The soldiers were not familiar with the area and the app took them the shortest possible route, which was directly through the refugee camp, Yaalon said in a speech near Tel Aviv.
"I have always said that if even if you use a navigation program, you still need to know how to navigate with a map," Yaalon said.
The incident comes at a time of escalated stabbing and shooting attacks across the region. Israeli security forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, 112 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti-Israeli protests, according to Reuters.