‘Tragedy’: IDF chief and defence minister take responsibility for killing of three hostages

Israel’s defence minister and the IDF chief both took responsibility for the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages by IDF forces in Gaza on Friday.

The hostages, Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Shamriz, were shot by Israeli soldiers in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood, despite approaching the soldiers shirtless and with their hands in the air, waving what looked like a white flag on a stick.

According to a preliminary investigation by the IDF, the soldier who spotted them felt threatened and thought it might have been a Hamas trap, after which he opened fire and killed two of the hostages. The third managed to escape to a nearby building but where he was yelling for help in Hebrew, but the soldiers who entered the building also felt threatened and decided to open fire.

Only after the incident did they realise that they had shot hostages. The IDF concluded that the soldiers had acted against the army’s rules of engagement by opening fire on unarmed people, but the army chief Herzl Halevi said he was sure that the soldiers were “confident they were doing the right thing.”

“The IDF, and I as its commander, are responsible for what happened, and we will do everything to prevent the recurrence of such cases in the continuation of the fighting,” IDF chief of staff Herzl Halevi said.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant also took personal responsibility for the incident but said that the public must understand the circumstances and the environment in which IDF soldiers are operating.

“Sometimes tapes are played with the sounds of an infant crying, in order to [lure] soldiers into apartments and then detonate explosives. These are events that have taken place and that continue to take place,” Gallant said.

Halevi later addressed commanders and soldiers of the 99th Division in the Gaza Strip, telling them: “You see two people, they are with hands up and without shirts, take two seconds, and I want to tell you something just as important, and if it’s two Gazans with a white flag coming out to surrender why would we shoot at them? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That’s not the IDF.

“I’m telling you whoever got confused here, even those who fought and now lay down their arms and raise their hands, we arrest them, we don’t shoot them. We get a lot of intelligence from the captives we have, we already have over a thousand. We don’t shoot them because the IDF doesn’t shoot a person who raises their hands. That’s strength, not weakness,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the tragedy: “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the death of three of our hostages.”

Unlike Halevi and Gallant, Netanyahu did not take personal responsibility for the incident.

Shortly after the announcement on Friday, hundreds of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv to protest against the government’s failure to bring back the remaining 128 hostages inside Gaza. The protesters demonstrated in front of the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, chanting “bring them home”.