A potential disaster was averted on Sunday after a military bus accidentally entered the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of Jerusalem near Ramallah.
The bus was carrying soldiers from the mixed-gender Caracal combat battalion when the driver took a wrong turn and entered the hostile camp.
Palestinian residents began pelting the bust with rocks, mostly from the surrounding rooftops.
One female officer and two soldiers were lightly wounded.
According to the IDF, the soldiers shot in the air to disperse an approaching hostile crowd, and with the aid of a Border Police patrol were able to leave the camp. The wounded soldiers were taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment.
One IDF official said the extraction of the bus was relatively easy.
A military spokesperson said that "the circumstances surrounding the event are being examined."
Sunday's incident was not the first time Israeli soldiers or civilians have mistakenly entered Palestinian areas.
In February, a male and a female soldier driving a military vehicle wrongly entered the Palestinian city of Jenin. They were attacked by Palestinian youths, who encircled their car and threw stones at them. The female soldier sustained light-to-moderate wounds, while the other soldier was lightly wounded, and a weapon was stolen from them.
A week earlier, a civilian entered the village of Abu Dis east of Jerusalem. He was also attacked by a mob of Palestinians who hurled stones at him and set fire to his vehicle. The man was lightly wounded before being extracted to safety.
