Israel’s military chief takes blame for hostage deaths
Israel’s military Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, has taken responsibility for the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
From left, Israeli hostages Alon Shamriz, Samar Talalka and Yotam Haim, who were accidentally killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Dec. 15, 2023. Photos courtesy
“The army and I, as its commander, are responsible for what happened and we will do everything we can to prevent such cases from happening again in the future of fighting,” he said in a video published on social media platform X on Saturday night.
Halevi emphasised that the rules of engagement were violated when the hostages were killed. He made it clear that people with white flags who want to surrender must not be shot at.
“The three hostages did everything to make us recognise them as such – they had taken off their shirts so that we could see that they were not wearing explosive belts, and they were holding a white flag,” admitted Helevi.
At the same time, he pointed out that the soldiers were in an active combat zone.
The three hostages had emerged from a building several dozens of metres away, an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman said earlier. According to the report, a soldier felt threatened and opened fire.
Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly had been holding up a white flag, a military official says, citing an initial inquiry into the incident that has shaken the country.
A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces on Friday in Shejaiya, an area of intense combat in northern Gaza where Hamas militants operate in civilian attire and use deception tactics, the official said.
“They’re all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they’re terrorists. They (the Israeli forces) open fire. Two (hostages) are killed immediately,” the official told reporters in a phone briefing on Saturday.
The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said.
“Immediately the battalion commander issues a ceasefire order, but again there’s another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies,” the official said.
“This was against our rules of engagement,” he added.
The military on Friday identified the three hostages killed in Shejaiya, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Samer Al-Talalka, abducted from nearby Kibbutz Nir Am.
Hamas militants rampaged through Israeli towns killing 1200 people and capturing 240 hostages on October 7. Israel then launched a counter-attack, during which Gaza health authorities say close to 19,000 people have been confirmed killed.
Around 300 people turned out to mourn Al-Talalka, 25, at his funeral on Saturday in his hometown of Hura, in southern Israel.
“We had so many hopes, expectations, that he would come back to us,” his cousin, Alaa Al-Talalka told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan from his Bedouin community’s mourning tent.
“We’re not going to start pointing fingers, who is guilty and who is not. It is just not the time,” Al-Talalka said.
“The families are thinking only of how to bring the hostages back alive. This is the time to ask for the war to end.”
IDF forces began a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks mounted by the militant group Hamas on Israeli territory across the border, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 hostages taken.
The ground offensive was preceded by and is being accompanied by aerial bombardments. According to Palestinian health officials, about 18,700 people, many of them civilians, have been killed.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the killing of the hostages as an “unbearable tragedy.”
According to Israeli estimates, 112 people abducted from Israel are still being held in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is still not releasing the bodies of 20 people kidnapped on October 7, Netanyahu’s office said.
On Friday evening, hundreds of people demonstrated spontaneously in Tel Aviv over the killing of the hostages.
Released hostages, relatives of hostages and hundreds of supporters called on Netanyahu to do more to secure the release of the remaining people held in Gaza.
Noam Perry, a relative of a hostage, accused the war Cabinet led by Netanyahu of claiming that military pressure was necessary for the hostages to be released.
“In the meantime, more and more hostages are coming back as corpses,” Perry complained. Other spokesmen at the rally called for a government plan to rescue the hostages.
Raz Ben-Ami, a mother of three, who was released after 54 days and whose husband Ohad is still being held captive in Gaza, said the families had warned a fortnight ago that the military action was endangering the hostages.
“They promised to bring the hostages back alive. What are you waiting for? Bring them home now,” she said, addressing Netanyahu.
However, at a press conference in Tel Aviv afterwards, Netanyahu emphasised that military pressure on Hamas had to be maintained to ensure victory and the return of all those kidnapped.
“We are more determined than ever to continue to the end, until we have destroyed Hamas and brought back all our abductees,” said Netanyahu.
He has appeared to confirm new negotiations are under way to recover hostages held by Hamas, after a source said Israel’s intelligence chief met the leader of mediating country Qatar.
In a televised press conference a day after Israeli forces mistakenly killed three of the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas, Netanyahu called the conflict an existential war that must be fought until victory, despite pressure and costs.
He vowed to destroy Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza.
Netanyahu spoke after the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, met Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe late on Friday, according to a source, and attention turned to a possible new Gaza truce and a prisoner and hostage deal.
Netanyahu sidestepped a question about the meeting, but confirmed he had given instructions to the negotiating team.
“We have serious criticisms of Qatar … but right now we are trying to complete the recovery of our hostages,” he said, alluding to the Gulf state’s ties to Hamas and Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
A Hamas statement said the group “affirms its position not to open any negotiations to exchange prisoners unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all,” adding: “The movement communicated this position to all mediators.”
AAP
Its called “Leadership”.