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The Israeli military misidentified shirtless male hostages waving a white flag in Gaza and shot all three in violation of its guidelines of engagement, a army official stated on Saturday.
The killing of Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka, who’re presumed to have escaped from Hamas captivity, is being investigated by the Israel Protection Forces.
The hostages had been inside “tens of metres” of Israeli positions, the official stated. An Israeli soldier thought they had been Hamas fighters attempting to lure Israeli troopers right into a lure, and deemed them to be “terrorists,” the army official stated.
Two had been killed instantly and the third died as he ran for canopy whereas calling for assist in Hebrew. A army official stated that in the course of the taking pictures the native commander issued a stop fireplace order that the troopers didn’t obey.
Their our bodies had been solely examined as a result of one of many hostages had a “western look,” the Ynet media outlet reported, resulting in the realisation that the useless males had been hostages. Haim, 28, had pale pores and skin and ginger hair.
The killing of the hostages got here after Palestinian human rights teams documented a number of cases of Gazan civilians waving white flags who had been shot by Israeli troopers.
Hamas has stated {that a} handful of different hostages have been killed in Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza, which President Joe Biden described final week as “indiscriminate”. Israel has killed greater than 18,000 Palestinians in its floor invasion and bombing of Gaza, based on Palestinian well being officers.
The households of the roughly 130 hostages nonetheless held by Hamas are planning to protest in Tel Aviv in a while Saturday to repeat their calls for that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have interaction in negotiations to safe the discharge of their kinfolk. The federal government maintains that weakening Hamas militarily will outcome within the hostages’ freedom.
A just lately launched hostage, Raz Ben-Ami, stated the federal government should have interaction in one other spherical of prisoner-for-hostage exchanges instantly.
“10 days in the past I warned Cupboard members that the combating might hurt the hostages,” she stated. “I begged them and warned that the combating might hurt the hostages. Sadly I used to be proper.”
The IDF’s chief of workers, Herzi Halevi, stated he took duty for his or her deaths, and that whereas Israeli troopers in Gaza had been working underneath troublesome and unpredictable conditions, the choice to open fireplace on shirtless males carrying a white flag contravened the present guidelines of engagement.
“However these pictures had been carried out throughout fight and underneath strain,” he stated. “Right away, the complexity of our simply conflict in Gaza was revealed.”
Israel stepped up army operations on the japanese fringe of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, with each bombings and firefights reported within the cities of Shejaiya and Khan Younis. An Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the correspondent wounded in a drone strike at a college getting used to shelter displaced Gazans.
Hamas took about 240 individuals hostage on October 7 throughout a cross-border raid that killed 1,200 individuals in Israel, based on the Israeli authorities. Dozens had been launched throughout a Qatar-brokered swap by which three Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails had been freed for each Israeli hostage — largely girls and kids — let loose.
That alternate came about underneath a truce that allowed an inflow of humanitarian assist into the besieged enclave. Many of the coastal strip’s 2.3mn inhabitants have been displaced to southern Gaza, with little clear water, meals or drugs of their tent cities and UN shelters.
David Barnea, the top of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company, met Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday evening in Europe in a bid to revive talks over a attainable cope with Hamas to safe the discharge of the hostages. Hamas has labeled a lot of the remaining hostages as Israeli troopers.
Netanyahu stated Saturday the primary spherical of hostage releases solely came about due to Israel’s army strain on Hamas, and vowed to proceed the conflict to assist launch the remaining. “The instruction I’m giving the negotiating workforce relies on this strain, with out which we now have nothing,” he stated.
Hamas has stated that their launch would require Israel to free many, if not all, of the greater than 7,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The talks had been optimistic however progress was sluggish, an individual briefed on the discussions stated. It’s the first time Barnea has met the Qatari prime minister since December 2.
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