{"id":20265,"date":"2023-12-18T04:29:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T02:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=20265"},"modified":"2023-12-18T04:29:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T02:29:59","slug":"israeli-forces-mistakenly-killed-3-hostages-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/israeli-forces-mistakenly-killed-3-hostages-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli forces mistakenly killed 3 hostages in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed responsibility for mistakenly killing three Israeli hostages in Gaza. The hostages were shot dead by the Israeli soldiers during a combat operation in Shejaiya in northern Gaza, while they were holding a white cloth and asking for help in Hebrew.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IDF expressed \u201cdeep remorse\u201d while announcing the death of the three hostages. The IDF said that its soldiers \u201cmistakenly identified\u201d the Israeli hostages as a threat during a combat operation and opened fire on them. 28-year-old Yotam Haim, 22-year-old Samer Talalka, and 26-year-old Alon Shamri were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior IDF official described the events from the initial investigation report. He stated that the three men emerged shirtless from a building, with one carrying a stick with a white cloth. One of the soldiers felt threatened by the shirtless hostages, as the men were only meters away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soldier declared the hostages as “terrorists” and opened fire. Two were immediately killed while the third, heavily wounded, returned to the building to escape firing from his countrymen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmediately the battalion commander issues a ceasefire order, but again there\u2019s another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies,\u201d said the official. \u201cThis was against our rules of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement at the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) in Jerusalem, on December 22, 2020. (Image Credit: Yonatan Sindel\/Reuters)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killing of the three men \u201can unbearable tragedy.\u201d He said, \u201cEven on this difficult evening, we will dress our wounds, learn the necessary lessons, and continue with our supreme effort to return all our hostages home safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would \u201cremain resilient and continue operating, for the hostages, for our citizens, and our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe IDF expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences,\u201d the military said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Mourning and anger across Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of Israeli protestors took to the streets in different cities expressing their anger and frustration over the death of the three hostages. Hundreds of protestors carrying photos of the three men gathered in downtown Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former Israeli hostage, Raz Ben Ami, told a crowd of hundreds that she had \u201cwarned\u201d the Israeli government that military operations in Gaza were putting hostages at risk and had \u201cunfortunately\u201d been proven right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Ami, whose husband, Ohad Ben Ami, remains in captivity, told the crowd that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s war Cabinet should present a proposal to free the dozens of people still held by Hamas.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Israeli<\/a>
Israeli people hold signs as they protest following an announcement by Israel’s military that they had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 15, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters\/Violeta Santos Moura)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

About 300 people turned out to mourn one of the dead hostages, Talalka, at his funeral in his hometown of Hura, in southern Israel. \u201cWe had so many hopes, expectations, that he would come back to us,\u201d his cousin, Alaa Talalka told reporters during his funeral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to start pointing fingers, who is guilty and who is not. It is just not the time,\u201d Talalka added. \u201cThe families are thinking only of how to bring the hostages back alive. This is the time to ask for the war to end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three men were among about 240 people taken captive during Hamas\u2019s October 7 attacks in Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Several of the captured hostages returned home during a pause in hostilities which saw the release of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, however, Netanyahu\u2019s government is yet to secure the release of 129 hostages held in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Diplomatic isolation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel faced growing diplomatic isolation in its war in Gaza as the United Nations demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and U.S. President Joe Biden said indiscriminate bombing of civilians is costing international support.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Israeli<\/a>
Israeli soldiers work on a tank near the border with Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from southern Israel on December 3, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters\/Alexander Ermochenko)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With intense fighting now being waged simultaneously in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops on Wednesday reported their worst combat losses for more than a month, including a colonel, the highest-ranking officer yet killed in the ground campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 13, Israel reported 10 of its soldiers killed in the past 24 hours. In addition to a full colonel commanding a forward base, the dead included a lieutenant colonel commanding a regiment. It was the worst one-day loss since 15 were killed on October 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed responsibility for mistakenly killing three Israeli hostages in Gaza. The hostages were shot dead by the Israeli soldiers during a combat operation in Shejaiya in northern Gaza, while they were holding a white cloth and asking for help in Hebrew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[75,6,92,93,26,356,5,27,7,128,340],"class_list":["post-20265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-news","tag-conflict","tag-defense","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-palestine","tag-u-s","tag-war","tag-war-crimes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Israeli-soldiers-entering-Gaza-Strip.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-5gR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20283,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20265\/revisions\/20283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}