Three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed on Friday were waving a white flag when an Israeli soldier fired on them, the findings of a preliminary probe by the Israeli army showed, according to Israeli media reports.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted that the Israeli military had killed three young men in the Shejaiya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli soldier mistook them for terrorists. The victims, who were among the 240 hostages taken captive by Hamas on October 7, were later identified as Yotam Haim, Samer El-Talalka and Alon Shamriz.
The three men were shirtless and one of them was waving a makeshift white flag, according to the reports. The shots killed two of the men, while a third was wounded but managed to flee to a nearby building. He was later killed by gunfire when he came out of the building, after crying for help in Hebrew, the probe reportedly found.
The killings have sparked protests across the country, as Israelis demand their government find a truce with Hamas in order to bring home the remaining hostages alive. “We are demanding a deal now,” said Udi Goren, a cousin of one of the hostages killed by Hamas, in an interview with CNN on Saturday. “There is a deal on the table. We demand the government to say yes.”
“This is a very tragic 24 hours for soldiers,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, spokesperson for the IDF, said in an interview with Sky News on Saturday. “This is a terrible event, and we will learn our lessons.” However, he declined to say whether disciplinary actions will be taken against the soldiers who shot the three men.
The incident is sure to intensify international pressure on Israel to reach a truce with Hamas. The White House, which has recently criticized Israel for conducting an “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, said the killings were a “tragic mistake.”
Hecht said the IDF’s priority remains the release of hostages while it continues to fight what he called “Satan’s army,” referring to Hamas. “This is a fight for our existence, this is a fight we have to do,” he stressed.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killings an “unbearable tragedy.” In a statement issued late Friday night, Netanyahu said Israel would “learn the lessons and continue with a supreme effort to return all our abductees home safely.”