FRIENDLY FIRE

Israeli hostages killed in Gaza were holding white flag

Protesters march on Tel Aviv after Israeli military accidentally kills hostages in Gaza

Tom Watling
Sat, December 16, 2023 a

Friends and relatives of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group attend a rally calling for their release, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Hundreds of protesters have marched to the Israeli war cabinet’s meeting spot after the military revealed they had accidentally killed three hostages in Gaza.

The hostages were killed in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops have been engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas militants in recent days. The soldiers mistakenly identified the three Israelis as a threat and opened fire on them, said the army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

He said it was believed that the three had either fled their captors or been abandoned.

“Perhaps in the last few days, or over the past day, we still don’t know all the details, they reached this area,” Mr Hagari said. He said the army expressed “deep sorrow” and was investigating.


Following news that Israel killed 3 captives in Shujaiya, families of captives and supporters hold emergency protest outside military HQ in Tel Aviv demanding Netanyahu make an immediate deal with Hamas.

“All of them now!”

“Today we learned what happens when there is no deal”… pic.twitter.com/FzeqUXl9IJ

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) December 15, 2023

The three hostages were identified as young men who had been abducted from Israeli communities near the Gaza border — Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Al-Talalka 25, and Alon Shamriz, 26. The trio’s bodies were taken to the Hatzvi Centre at the Shura Camp, where they were identified.

Hundreds of protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main highway late on Friday in a spontaneous demonstration calling for the return of the other hostages.

They later vented their anger outside the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv, where the three-pronged Israeli war cabinet meets to discuss the offensive operation in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defence minister Yoav Gallant and former Chief of the General Staff and opposition leader Benny Gantz make up the cabinet.

The protestors carried placards and candles, and chanted “today we learned what happens when there is no deal”, according to footage of the event.

The hostages’ plight has dominated public discourse in Israel since the 7 October attack by Hamas. Roughly 240 Israelis were taken hostage in Gaza on that day while a further 1,200 were killed.

Photographs of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas militants are projected on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The families of the hostages have led a powerful public campaign calling on the government to do more to bring them home.

Anger over the mistaken killing of the three hostages — young men in their 20s — is likely to increase pressure on the government to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more captives for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Hamas released over 100 hostages for Palestinian prisoners in November. Nearly all those freed on both sides were women and children. Talks on further swaps broke down, with Hamas seeking the release of more veteran prisoners for female soldiers it is holding.

Israeli political and military leaders often say freeing all the hostages is their top aim in the war alongside destroying Hamas. However, they argue that their release can only be achieved through military pressure on Hamas, a claim that has sharply divided public opinion.

After negotiations broke down, Hamas said it will only free the remaining hostages, believed to number more than 130, if Israel ends the war and releases all Palestinian prisoners.

As of late November, Israel held nearly 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offenses, including hundreds rounded up since the start of the war.

Close to 19,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October during the Israeli aerial bombardment and subsequent invasion of Gaza.

Israeli hostages killed in Gaza were holding white flag, official says

Updated Sat, December 16, 2023


Demonstration following Israel's military announcement that they had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza, in Tel Aviv


By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces had been holding up a white flag, a military official said on Saturday, 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.

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 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages on Oct. 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," he said.

More than 100 hostages remain in Gaza, held incommunicado despite Israeli calls for Red Cross access.

More than 100, women, children, teens and foreigners were released in a deal struck in late November. Others have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.

The news on Friday that three had been killed by Israeli forces prompted a late-night protest outside Israel's defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, where hostage families were expected to deliver a statement later on Saturday.

One father said each day left families guessing whether they will be next to receive bad news.

"We're in a kind of Russian roulette," Ruby Chen, whose son Itay is captive in Gaza, told reporters as he held up an hour glass. "Israel's government needs to get a grip and bring back the hostages."

(Additional reporting by Clodagh Kilcoyne in Hura; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)

3 hostages mistakenly killed by troops had been holding a white flag, Israeli military official says

JULIA FRANKEL, NAJIB JOBAIN and SAMY MAGDY
Updated Sat, December 16, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly shot by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip had been waving a white flag and were shirtless when they were killed, an Israeli military official said Saturday.

Anger over the mistaken killings is likely to increase pressure on the Israeli government to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more captives for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Hamas has conditioned further releases on Israel halting its punishing air and ground campaign in Gaza, now in its 11th week.

The account of how the hostages died also raised questions about the conduct of Israeli ground troops. Palestinians on several occasions reported that Israeli soldiers opened fire as civilians tried to flee to safety.

The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters in line with military regulations, said it was likely that the hostages had been abandoned by their militant captors or had escaped. The soldiers’ behavior was “against our rules of engagement,” the official said, and was being investigated at the highest level.

The three, all young men in their 20s, were killed Friday in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops have engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas militants in recent days. They had been among more than 240 people taken hostage during an unprecedented raid by Hamas into Israel on Oct. 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians. The attack sparked the war.

Hundreds of protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main highway late Friday in a spontaneous demonstration calling for the hostages’ return. The hostages’ plight has dominated public discourse in Israel since the Oct. 7 attack. Their families have led a powerful public campaign calling on the government to do more to bring them home.

Hadas Kalderon, whose former partner is still held hostage after their two teenage children were released in November, said the Israeli government must pay any price to free all hostages. “To make a deal, now, that’s what I’m saying. Yesterday, not now," said.

The military official said the three hostages had emerged from a building close to Israeli soldiers’ positions. They were waving a white flag and were shirtless, possibly in an effort to signal they posed no threat.

Two were killed immediately, and the third ran back into the building screaming for help in Hebrew. The commander issued an order to cease fire, but another burst of gunfire killed the third man, the official said.

Israeli media gave a more detailed account. The mass circulation daily Yediot Ahronot said Saturday that according to an investigation into the incident, a sniper identified the three hostages as suspects when they emerged from the building, despite them not being armed, and shot two of the three.

Soldiers followed the third when he ran into the building and hid, shouting at him to come out and at least one soldier shot him when he emerged from a staircase, Yediot Ahronot said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz gave a similar account based on a preliminary investigation, saying the soldiers who followed the third hostage into the building believed he was a Hamas member trying to pull them into a trap.

Hamas released over 100 hostages for Palestinian prisoners during a brief cease-fire in November. Nearly all those freed on both sides were women and minors. Talks on further swaps broke down, with Hamas seeking the release of more veteran prisoners for female soldiers it is holding.

Israeli political and military leaders often say freeing all the hostages is their top aim in the war alongside destroying Hamas. However, they argue that their release can only be achieved through military pressure on Hamas, a claim that has sharply divided Israeli public opinion.

After negotiations broke down, Hamas said it will only free the remaining hostages, believed to number more than 130, if Israel ends the war and releases all Palestinian prisoners. As of late November, Israel held nearly 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offenses, including hundreds rounded up since the start of the war.

The offensive has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday before a communications blackout that has hampered telephone and internet services in the Gaza Strip. Thousands more are missing and feared dead beneath the rubble.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Its latest count did not specify how many were women and minors, but they have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead in previous tallies.

Dozens of mourners held funeral prayers Saturday for Samer Abu Daqqa, a Palestinian journalist working for the Al Jazeera network who was killed Friday in an Israeli strike in the southern city of Khan Younis. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the cameraman was the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted: 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.

The war has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 85% of the territory's population of 2.3 million from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis. Only a trickle of aid has been able to enter Gaza and distribution is disrupted by fighting.

Residents in northern Gaza meanwhile reported heavy bombing and the sounds of gunbattles overnight and into Saturday in devastated Gaza City and the nearby urban refugee camp of Jabaliya.

“It was a violent bombardment,” Assad Abu Taha said by phone from the Shijaiyah neighborhood. Another resident, Hamza Abu Seada, reported heavy airstrikes in Jabaliya, with non-stop sounds of explosions and gunfire.

An Associated Press journalist in southern Gaza also reported airstrikes and tank shelling overnight in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of Gaza, but the White House continues to offer wholehearted support with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing.

In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was also expected to visit Israel soon to discuss the issue.

The U.S. has pushed Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, and the government said it would open a second entry point to speed up deliveries.

___

Jobain reported from Rafah, Gaza Strip and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.



Israeli military says it mistakenly killed 3 Israeli hostages in Gaza

Associated Press
Fri, December 15, 2023 at 12:27 PM MST·7 min read


RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Israeli military on Friday mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages during its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, military officials said.

The army’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israeli troops found the hostages and erroneously identified them as a threat. He said it was not clear if they had escaped their captors or been abandoned.

The deaths occurred in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops have engaged in fierce battles against Hamas militants in recent days.

He said the army expressed “deep sorrow” and was investigating.


The deaths were announced as a U.S. envoy said the U.S. and Israel were discussing a timetable for scaling back intense combat operations in the war against Hamas, even though they agree the overall fight will take months.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the besieged enclave’s postwar future, which, according to a senior U.S. official, could include bringing back Palestinian security forces driven from their jobs in Gaza by Hamas in its 2007 takeover.

American and Israeli officials have been vague in public about how Gaza will be run if Israel achieves its goal of ending Hamas control. The notion that Palestinian security forces could return was floated as one of several ideas. It appeared to be the first time Washington offered details on its vision for security arrangements in the enclave.

Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there and says it won’t allow a postwar foothold for the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is deeply unpopular with Palestinians.

In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Sullivan that it would take months to destroy Hamas, but he did not say whether his estimate referred to the current phase of heavy airstrikes and ground battles.

Sullivan said Friday that “there is no contradiction between saying the fight is going to take months and also saying that different phases will take place at different times over those months, including the transition from the high-intensity operations to more targeted operations.”

He said he discussed a timeline with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s War Cabinet, and that such conversations would continue during an upcoming visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The offensive, triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 80 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of Gaza, but the White House continues to offer wholehearted support for Israel with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing.

“I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives,” Biden said Thursday when asked if he wants Israel to scale down its operations by the end of the month. “Not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful.”

While battered by the Israeli onslaught, Hamas has continued its attacks. On Friday, it fired rockets from Gaza toward central Israel, setting off sirens in Jerusalem for the first time in weeks but causing no injuries. The group’s resilience called into question whether Israel can defeat it without wiping out the entire territory.

Israelis remain strongly supportive of the war and see it as necessary to prevent a repeat of Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants attacked communities across southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostage. A total of 116 soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive, which began Oct. 27.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said militants have fired 12,500 rockets since Oct. 7, including more than 2,000 that fell short and landed in Gaza.

Israel’s air and ground assault over the past 10 weeks has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Thousands more are missing and feared dead beneath the rubble.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Its latest count did not specify how many were women and minors, but they have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead in previous tallies.

Communications services still appeared to be down across Gaza on Friday, 24 hours after telecommunications provider Paltel said they were cut due to ongoing fighting.

Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling continued Friday, including in the southern city of Rafah, part of the shrinking areas of tiny, densely populated Gaza to which Palestinian civilians had been told by Israel to evacuate. At least one person was killed, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw the body arriving at a local hospital.

The Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera said Friday that an Israeli strike killed one of its journalists in Gaza, Palestinian cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa. The strike also wounded the network’s chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh. The two were reporting on the grounds of a school in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the strike hit, the network said.

Before Abu Daqqa’s death, at least 63 journalists have been killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, according to the media freedom organization, The Committee to Protect Journalists. They include 56 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.

Dahdouh, a veteran of covering Israel-Gaza wars, was wounded by shrapnel in his right arm.

In the West Bank, Sullivan met Friday with Abbas, who lost control of Gaza when Hamas drove out his security forces in 2007. The takeover came a year after Hamas defeated Abbas’ Fatah party in parliament elections and the rivals failed to form a unity government.

A senior U.S. official said that Sullivan and others have discussed the prospect of having those associated with the Palestinian Authority security forces before the Hamas takeover serve as the “nucleus” of postwar peacekeeping in Gaza.

It was one idea of many being considered for establishing security in Gaza, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with White House ground rules. He said such talks were taking place with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and regional partners.

The U.S. has said it eventually wants to see the West Bank and Gaza under a unified Palestinian government as a precursor to a Palestinian state — an idea soundly rejected by Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian officials have said they will only consider a postwar role in Gaza in the context of concrete U.S.-backed steps toward Palestinian statehood.

In the meeting, Abbas called for an immediate cease-fire and ramped-up aid to Gaza, and emphasized that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian state, according to a statement from his office. It made no mention of conversations about postwar scenarios.

As part of those scenarios, Washington has called for revitalizing the Palestinian Authority, without letting on whether such reforms would require personnel changes or general elections, which last took place 17 years ago.

The 88-year-old Abbas is deeply unpopular, with a poll published Wednesday indicating close to 90 percent of Palestinians want him to resign. Meanwhile, Palestinian support for Hamas has tripled in the West Bank, with a small uptick in Gaza, according to the poll. Still, a majority of Palestinians do not back Hamas, according to the survey.

IDF accidentally shoots and kills three Israelis held hostage in Gaza

Tamar Michaelis and David Shortell, CNN
Fri, December 15, 2023 


Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza after misidentifying them as threats, the Israel Defense Forces said.

“During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a news briefing on Friday.

“During searches and checks in the area in which the incident occurred, a suspicion arose over the identities of the deceased,” Hagari added. “Their bodies were transferred to Israeli territory for examination, after which it was confirmed that they were three Israeli hostages.”

The hostages have been identified as Yotam Haim and Alon Shimriz, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, and Samer Talalka, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am on the same day.

The IDF began reviewing the incident immediately, Hagari said.

Hagari said the IDF believes the three men either escaped their captors or had been “left behind” because of the fighting in the area.

Asked whether the three men put their hands up or shouted in Hebrew, Hagari said the military is still “reviewing the details” and promised “full transparency about all the details of this incident.”

Hagari said the incident occurred “in an area where our troops have confronted many terrorists over the past few days, even today, and engaged in heavy fighting.” He said Israeli soldiers had recently faced attacks in which fighters “tried to mislead our forces and fire-trap them,” as well as “suicide terrorists” who did not carry weapons.

Israel is still gathering facts about the fatal shooting, Hagari said. “Lessons and relevant instructions concerning the identification of hostages in battle zones have been immediately communicated to all IDF forces across the whole Gaza Strip,” he said.

Before news of three hostages’ deaths was announced, Israel had said Friday that they believe 132 hostages remained in Gaza, of whom 112 were thought to still be alive.

More than 100 hostages were released by Hamas last month after a hard-fought truce that also saw the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. But as negotiations around the release of the hostages broke down – with each side blaming the other for the failure – fighting resumed in Gaza.

More dangerous, close-quarters operations are taking place throughout the battered enclave, including in Shejaiya and Jabalya in the north, and further south in Khan Younis.

Several dozen protestors briefly blocked a major thoroughfare outside of the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv Friday night in a demonstration called by families of hostages following the news of the shooting.

The protestors, shouting “everyone now,” said they were demanding immediate action to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
What we know about the hostages

Talalka, 25, was the eldest of 10 children, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. He lived in Hura and worked with his fathers and brothers at a chicken hatchery near Kibbutz Nir Am, the forum said.

“Samer was an avid motorcyclist who loved to ride around the countryside and spend time with friends,” the forum said.

He had been at the hatchery on October 7 with his father when the terror attack began, telling his sister in a phone call that he had been injured by gunfire, before the call disconnected, the group said.

Fellow captive Haim was 28, according to the same group. The forum said he was a gifted musician and drummer, and a devotee of metal music.

Haim was able to speak with his family and tell them that his house had burned down before he was kidnapped on October 7, the group said.

He leaves behind two parents, a brother, and a sister.

IDF to take ‘additional caution’

Israeli soldiers in Gaza are now being told to “exercise additional caution” when encountering people in civilian clothes following the hostages’ accidental killing, Jonathan Conricus, another IDF spokesman, said.

He added that many of the combatants attacking IDF forces in Gaza “have been dressed in civilian clothes.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday described the hostages’ deaths as an “unbearable tragedy” and said that Israel will “learn the lessons” of the accident.

“Along with all the people of Israel, I bow my head with deep sorrow and mourn the death of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped,” he said.

“The whole state of Israel is grieving this evening,” he continued. “My heart goes out to the families aching during their time of immense grief. I would like to send strength to our brave soldiers focusing on this sacred mission of returning our hostages, even with the price of sacrificing their own lives.”

Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, said his “heart is shattered” by news of the shooting in a statement on X.

“The pain accompanying the campaign is now even bigger due to this difficult incident,” he said.