Israel-Hamas war: Hundreds protest in Tel Aviv after IDF kills three Jewish hostages
Protestors — including family members of hostages — have blocked a major intersection after the Israeli military admitted to killing three Jewish captives in Gaza. Follow updates. Warning: Graphic
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Hundreds of protestors have marched in Tel Aviv after the Israeli Defence Force killed three Jewish hostages in Gaza when they mistook them for terrorists.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the three victims were Yotam Chaim, who was abducted from Kfar Aza on October 7, Samer Talalka who was abducted from Nir Am on the same day and Alon Shamriz.
Hagari said following the incident, and “acting on a suspicion of the identities of the deceased”, their bodies were brought back to Israel for examination where it was determined they had indeed been among the hostages.
During fighting in Shejaiya, Gaza, an IDF force mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. They opened fired and killed them.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 15, 2023
The bodies were returned to Israel and identified as:
ðŸ•¯ï¸ Yotam Haim, abducted from Kfar Gaza
ðŸ•¯ï¸ Samar Fouad Talalka, abducted from Nir Am… pic.twitter.com/Cx6KbGw7RH
“The IDF began reviewing the incident immediately.... Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field,” Hagari said.
“The IDF expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences.”
The Israeli army’s killing of three captives has sharpened the anger of a movement centred on the family members of captives held in Gaza, many of whom believe the freedom of their relatives has not been prioritised.
They say that release of the captives should be the priority, rather than the defeat of Hamas.
Large crowds blocked off a road to traffic as they marched towards the Israel Defence Forces’ Kirya military headquarters.
In a statement on X, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu sent condolences to the families and said the entire country was in mourning.
Over 19,000 have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Gaza’s health ministry.
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AL JAZEERA CAMERAMAN KILLED
Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa has died of wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the TV network said.
Daqqa had been trapped in a Haifa school, where he was working on assignment when it came under fire.
Ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded cameraman, according to journalists in Gaza, and the network said he had been stuck there bleeding for five hours.
At least 17 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded early Friday after artillery fire struck the Haifa school and a residential home in Khan Younis.
The airstrike also wounded Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh. In October, an Israeli airstrike killed Dahdouh’s wife, son and grandson. He received the news while he was on air covering the war.
Dozens of journalists have been killed in Gaza, making it the most dangerous period for the profession in 31 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
#Gaza: @pressfreedom is deeply saddened by a drone strike that killed @AJArabic cameraperson Samer Abu Daqqa and injured Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, and calls for an independent investigation into the attack.https://t.co/B8lRuj2w2w. .
— CPJ MENA (@CPJMENA) December 15, 2023
IDF’S ‘EXECUTION’ KILLINGS OF TWO PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS PROMPTS INVESTIGATION
Israel’s military police are investigating the killing of two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank after a human rights group posted a video that captures the apparent “executions” of the two men by Israeli forces, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Israel’s B’Tselem human rights group accused soldiers of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions” after security camera video footage showed two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp near the town of Tubas.
One man, who B’Tselem identified as 25-year-old Rami Jundob, is gunned down. An Israeli military jeep then pulls up near Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and a soldier inside fires multiple shots at the stricken man until he stops moving on the ground.
Israeli soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as Thaar Shahin, 36, as he cowers underneath a nearby car, and they shoot him dead at close range.
Original security camera footage obtained by B'Tselem captures two short-range executions of Palestinians in al-Far'ah R.C. on 8 December 2023. pic.twitter.com/gyDztMXIww
— B'Tselem ×‘×¦×œ× Ø¨ØªØ³ÙŠÙ„Ù… (@btselem) December 15, 2023
US CRITICISES ISRAEL FOR STRIKING LEBANESE ARMY ‘MORE THAN 34 TIMES’
Top US officials have rebuked Israel for attacks on the Lebanese military over the past two months, according to a report by CNN.
“The Israelis have struck Lebanese Armed Forces positions more than 34 times since October 7, including with small arms and artillery fire, drones and helicopters,” CNN said.
CNN cited US officials as saying the strikes are “unacceptable”.
ISRAEL OPENS GAZA BORDER CROSSING AMID US PRESSURE
Israel approved the “temporary” delivery of aid into Gaza via its Kerem Shalom border crossing, the prime minister’s office said, opening a new route for supplies after weeks of pressure.
The Gaza Strip is facing dire humanitarian conditions after more than two months of war, but prior to Friday’s decision, all aid entering the territory had to pass through the Rafah crossing on its border with Egypt.
Kerem Shalom, which sits on Gaza’s border with Israel, recently began inspecting shipments of aid bound for the territory, but the trucks still had to travel to Rafah afterwards to enter.
Israel’s cabinet “approved today a temporary measure of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing” in order to increase the amount of aid getting into the territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“The cabinet’s decision determines that only humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt will be transferred into the Gaza Strip this way,” it added.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was wrapping up a visit to Israel, called the decision a “significant step”.
“President (Joe) Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days,” he said.
AID TRUCKS RAIDED
A United Nations official says desperate Palestinians are raiding aid trucks in a bid to find food.
Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini said people suffering from hunger and providing assistance to individuals in shelters is becoming more difficult due to overcrowding outside.
“People are stopping aid trucks, taking the food, and eating it immediately,” Mr Lazzarini said
“Hunger has emerged in the past few weeks, and we are meeting more and more people who have not eaten for a day or two or three days.”
IDF CONDEMNS SOLDIERS
Meanwhile, the IDF as condemned the behaviour of several of their soldiers who were filmed singing and mocking the Islamic call to prayer over the loudspeaker of a mosque in the city of Jenin.
The incident came during three days of raids in the occupied West Bank, during which Israeli troops have killed 12 Palestinians, including one youth shot dead at a hospital, according to Palestinian officials and international health charities.
Footage posted to social media shows the IDF soldiers inside the mosque as one of them recites a Jewish prayer in the style of the Islamic call to prayer from the pulpit.
In another clip, a song associated with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah is heard sung in Hebrew through a loudspeaker in the minaret.
The IDF said the soldiers “will be disciplined accordingly”. It said it would also act in similar cases which have been filmed in Gaza.
In a statement on Thursday, the IDF said the soldiers “acted against IDF codes of conduct within a religious establishment”.
The statement said those responsible “were immediately removed from operational activity”.
The call of Shama Israel from the town of Jenine pic.twitter.com/dsUGcBdzvL
— The Jewish Voice (@JewishVoice) December 14, 2023
It added: “The behaviour of the soldiers in the videos is serious and stands in complete opposition to the values of the IDF.”
The incidents in Jenin are not the first time Israeli soldiers have been upbraided for bad behaviour filmed and posted on social media recently.
Since Israeli forces have been fighting the war in Gaza from the end of October, videos have emerged including showing a soldier smashing up a toy shop, while the person filming laughs; soldiers setting fire to goods in the back of a lorry; and another rummaging through women’s clothes in what appears to be a private residence.
ISRAELI MILITARY CLAIMS VIDEO DISPUTED BY DOCTOR
The Israeli military released a video it says shows militants handing in weapons after their surrender from a hospital in northern Gaza.
However, a hospital doctor told CNN the men, some of whom are stripped to the waist in the video, are civilians who were carrying out weapons belonging to hospital security and police on the orders of Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces have had a heavy presence around the Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza City for well over a week, maintaining Israel’s operational focus on the strip’s medical facilities.
The video, along with two stills also released Thursday by the IDF, show several men carrying weapons over their heads or in their arms and laying them on the ground.
Another clip on the same video shows a long line of men in civilian clothes, with their hands in the air — many holding their green identity papers — walking single file down a smashed-up street under Israeli guard.
CNN spoke with Dr Hossam Abu-Safia, head of the pediatric department at Kamal Adwan hospital, as the incident was taking place.
“We are unarmed civilians standing in the hospital yard,” Dr Safia said, adding that the Israeli army had instructed civilians to take the weapons outside and then filmed them doing it.
He said they had been given 10 minutes to evacuate the wounded from the hospital, along with medical staff.
“We don’t know where we are going.”
On Monday, a tank shell killed two women in the maternity ward and severely wounded two others.
ISRAEL HAS CONDUCTED ‘INDISCRIMINATE BOMBINGS’, US SAYS
Some of the heaviest fighting and bombings took place in Gaza with Palestinian authorities claiming 200 people were killed in 24 hours including 27 mostly women and children in the declared safe haven of Rafah city on the Gaza-Egypt border.
Meanwhile American media network CNN, citing US intelligence, has revealed almost half (45 per cent) of the air to ground munitions Israel has been using in Gaza have been “dumb bombs” or non-guided munitions.
It was this intelligence that was apparently behind US President Joe Biden’s rare criticism of how Israel had been conducting its “indiscriminate bombings” and his appeal to minimise Palestinian civilian deaths.
The assessment, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, estimated there had been 29,000 munitions dropped on Gaza with more than 13,000 not being precision or guided and hence had been causing huge loss of life.
Dispatched Pentagon security adviser Jake Sullivan in Israel has held high level talks and has suggested a “lower intensity” military operation “in the near future” to lessen the civilian collateral.
At least 18,787 people have died and another 50,897 wounded in Palestine since the war began on October 7, according to Gaza’s healthy ministry.
ISRAEL TROOPS, TANKS RAID GAZA HOSPITAL: UN
Israeli forces backed by tanks raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, located to the north of Gaza City, for the third consecutive day on Thursday and subjected Palestinians there to “mass arrests and ill-treatment”, the UN said.
Citing the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Israeli troops forced some 2500 displaced people sheltering at the hospital to leave, and patients and medical staff were moved to the grounds of the medical facility.
Two patients died as a result of Israeli troops preventing medical staff from providing support to 12 babies in intensive care and 10 people in the emergency department, according to the UNOCHA report.
US TEACHER ARRESTED FOR ‘THREATENING TO BEHEAD’ MUSLIM CHILD
A US school has been teacher arrested after he threatened to behead a Muslim student.
Benjamin Reese, 51, was heard shouting that he would “cut your … head off” at three female students, according to an incident report written by a sheriff’s deputy, CNN reported.
He was also heard saying he would “drag [a student] by the back of my car” and that he would “slit her … throat”.
School surveillance video showed Reese following the three students in the hallway of Warner Robins Middle School in Warner Robins, Georgia, according to the report.
One of the students told the sheriff’s deputy that she had asked Reese why an Israeli flag was hanging in his classroom, saying that she found it offensive because of Israel’s actions in Gaza. After trying to leave the classroom, the student said that Reese tried to stop her from leaving.
Reese was arrested last week and charged with making terroristic threats and cruelty to children in the third degree, according to the incident report, which lists more than 20 witnesses, according to CNN. The teacher has since been bonded out of jail.
GAZA CEASEFIRE PROTESTS HELD IN EIGHT MAJOR US CITIES
Jewish protesters demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza have held demonstrations in eight US cities, blocking rush hour traffic on busy streets and bridges in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC, according to reports.
The lobby group, Jewish Voice for Peace, said about 90 protesters blocked the overpass to New York Avenue in Washington. DC.
More than 30 protesters were arrested in Philadelphia when an estimated 200 people briefly blocked the I-76 highway holding signs and banners that read: “Let Gaza Live” and “Not in our name.”
“Every day without a ceasefire condemns hundreds, maybe thousands, of Palestinians to death. All done ‘to keep Jews safe.’ We cry out as loudly as we can: not in our name,” the group wrote on social media.
“On this last night of Chanukah, we make calls for ceasefire impossible to ignore.”
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HAPPENING NOW
— Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (@JVPBayArea) December 15, 2023
Hundreds of people here in San Francisco outside Google’s headquarters yelling “shame!†at Google’s $1.2 BILLION artificial intelligence contract w/the Israeli gov.
Google workers are speaking out. Company shut front doors & told workers to use a back entrance. pic.twitter.com/bDJRqfy0AO
BREAKING: Hundreds of Jews + allies have shut down all 15 lanes of downtown Boston's biggest intersection.
— IfNotNow🔥🕎 (@IfNotNowOrg) December 14, 2023
Business as usual is a death sentence for the people of Gaza. On this last night of Chanukah, we make calls for ceasefire impossible to ignore.@IfNotNowBoston@JVPBostonpic.twitter.com/mbBmxmFU2U
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