Israeli troops who shot dead a Palestinian taxi driver after he ran over one of their comrades at a West Bank roadblock may have also mistakenly shot the soldier, who died, the army said today.
"The investigation showed that in addition to the bullets that hit the taxi, gunfire which the army force directed at the vehicle may have also struck the soldier in the head," the army said in a statement.
The army, which appointed a special investigative team to look into the incident, was awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine whether the vehicle or Israeli bullets killed the soldier.
Palestinian witnesses said the taxi driver ran over the soldier after dark yesterday at a dimly lit checkpoint near the West Bank city of Hebron in what the Israeli army said appeared to be an attack in violation of a de facto ceasefire.
The army said the driver stopped his car before turning and speeding towards the soldier, prompting troops to open fire.
The taxi driver, who Israeli media reports said was unarmed and had no known links to militant groups, was shot dead and the soldier was thrown aside by the force of the crash.
The incident was the latest violence to strain a ceasefire that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a February summit that raised hopes for renewed peacemaking.
Major Palestinian militant groups have agreed on a "period of calm" until the end of the year following 4-1/2 years of violence in a Palestinian uprising. But some splinter groups have said they were not bound by the deal.