Israel mistakenly kills three hostages in Gaza
AFP | Tel Aviv
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
The Israeli army said yesterday that three hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew. Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samer El-Talalqa, all in their 20s, were shot during operations in Gaza City on Friday, sparking protests in Israel.
They were among about 250 people taken hostage during Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel, which killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian movement that has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.
The territory’s Hamas government says the war has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that during fighting in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and, as a result, fired towards them, and the hostages were illed." An army official said the hostages were all “without shirts” and had “a stick with a white cloth on it," but a soldier felt threatened and opened fire.
"Two are killed immediately; one is injured and runs back into the building,” the official said, adding that the soldiers heard “a cry for help... in Hebrew." Despite a ceasefire order, “there’s another burst of fire towards the third figure, and he also dies.” The official called it a “tragic” event and “very hard day”, but said the troops had faced “intense combat in the area." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy."
Hundreds were expected to gather yesterday in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of 129 hostages still held in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. “I am dying of fear,” said Merav Svirsky, sister of hostage Itay Svirsky, at a protest on Friday. “We demand a deal now.” In November, a one-week truce saw more than 100 hostages freed in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but fighting has since resumed. The hostages’ deaths have heightened the already fierce scrutiny of how Israel is conducting its ground and air assault in Gaza.
The White House, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has voiced growing concern over civilian deaths. “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives -- not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” US President Joe Biden said this week. News platform Axios said the director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, David Barnea, was due to meet this weekend in an unspecified location in Europe with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped negotiate the earlier truce.
In Gaza, fierce fighting continued. The Israeli army said yesterday it had raided two schools in Gaza City. It said they were Hamas hiding places. In the face of growing international pressure, Israel announced a “temporary measure” allowing aid to be delivered directly to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. A World Health Organisation representative said the decision was “very good news”.
Since the war began, aid has trickled into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Humanitarian agencies have said the volume is just a fraction of what is needed to help the estimated 1.9 million Gazans displaced by the war. Washington hopes the Palestinian Authority can resume control of Gaza as part of a renewed push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a solution that Netanyahu has resolutely opposed.
The conflict has appeared to push any peace deal further out of view. Multiple Western governments issued a joint statement demanding that Israel “take concrete steps to halt unprecedented violence by Israeli settlers” in the West Bank.
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