One person is dead and 15 were wounded last night after a shootout when Israeli soldiers reportedly got misdirected into a West Bank refugee camp by Waze, the popular navigation and traffic app.
This news comes directly from Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who was quoted by the AFP:
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 .”
Yaalon went on to say that two soldiers in a jeep of some kind got routed into the Qalandiya refugee camp, they got rocks and molotov cocktails thrown at them, and got stuck in an hours-long shootout before reinforcements got them out. In the whole operation, a 22-year-old Palestinian student was killed. 10 others were wounded, along with five Israeli border police.
The AFP reports that Waze has not issued a statement on the mess.
Photo Credit: Getty Images (Qalandia pictured in 2011)
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