The platoon commander of the soldier who shot and killed a Palestinian girl near Tul Karm last Tuesday was dismissed from his post yesterday, following an investigation conducted by GOC Central Command Major General Yair Naveh.

The commander of the company, part of the Nachshon infantry battalion, will be reprimanded, and the soldier who shot Doaa Abd al-Qadr will continue to be suspended. The Military Police is also investigating the incident.

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Naveh's probe, which included a reconstruction of what happened, found that 14-year-old Abd al-Qadr and her friend, 12-year-old Rasha Shalbi, arrived in the area, and the IDF force identified two suspicious figures in a ditch west of the fence.

The platoon commander of the force fired into the air, and the two girls tried to escape. A soldier serving as sharpshooter then fired two rounds, which struck Abd al-Qadr.

The investigation found that the rounds were fired at the sharpshooter's own discretion. He did not receive permission to open fire, and he ignored the presence of the officer about a meter away from him.

The sharpshooter said that he thought the girl was a terrorist because of the bag she was carrying on her back, which he misidentified as a flak jacket. But he admitted that he had not observed the figure carrying a gun, and was unable to explain why he had shot at people fleeing from the fence, toward the village. He also claimed that he fired at the girl's legs, though she was wounded in her arm.

The investigation was conducted at the site of the incident, near the separation fence next to the village of Farun, south of Tul Karm. Brigadier General Yair Golan, the commander of the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, and two brigade commanders also participated in the investigation.

The girl's father, Nasser Abd al-Qadr, who had been arrested in Israel two months previously on suspicion of illegal entry and auto theft, was not allowed to attend her funeral.

He was released on bail on Friday evening.