Killing of hostages by Israeli Forces in Gaza was preventable

Investigation into the deaths of three escaped hostages recounts the event that raised pressure on Israel to reach a deal with Hamas.

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer fires across the Gaza border on Thursday. Picture: AFP

The shooting deaths of three Israeli hostages by Israeli forces in Gaza this month could have been prevented, according to the findings of an Israeli military investigation that provides new details about the incident.

“The entire chain of command feels responsible for this difficult event, regrets this outcome, and shares in the grief of the families of the three hostages,” Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said on Thursday in a statement announcing the results of the investigation.

The three men were shot after they emerged from a building in Gaza City, shirtless and waving a white flag, on December 15, according to the Israeli military.

The killings amplified pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with hostages’ families saying he hasn’t done enough to secure the release of captives abducted by Hamas and other attackers on October 7. Israelis remain broadly supportive of the war but polls have indicated that a majority of the public have lost faith in Mr Netanyahu.

The findings of the investigation were transmitted to Israel soldiers in the field to better prepare them for possible future encounters with hostages, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

“There are still 129 hostages in the Gaza area, in various places, and we may encounter them, and every soldier in the Gaza area received the lessons from this investigation,” Rear Admiral Hagari said.

Hamas and other militants took around 240 people hostage during the October 7 attack on Israel. More than 100 were freed in November following a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in which Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli military’s report on its investigation describes events surrounding the shooting of the three hostages, Yotam Haim, 28 years old, Samer Talalka, 25, and Alon Shamriz, 26.

According to a report on the investigation, after identifying the three men as threats, Israeli forces shot and killed two of them. A battalion commander on the scene ordered the soldiers to hold their fire while they identified the third.

After 15 minutes the commander heard calls of “help” and “they are shooting at me”. The commander ordered the soldiers to hold fire while calling to the hostage, “come toward us.”

Israeli youth, led by Israeli Scouts from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, protest for the release of hostages held in Gaza in Jerusalem on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

“The figure emerged from a building toward the forces. Two soldiers, who did not hear the order due to noise from a nearby tank, shot at and killed the third hostage,” said a statement on the investigation.

The investigation found that there were other signs that there may have been hostages in the area days before the incident, Israeli forces found a note in Hebrew reading “help” at the exit of a tunnel in the area, the investigation found. A day before the killing, an Israeli drone also observed signs nearby with the writing “SOS” and “Help, 3 hostages.” Israeli forces on the ground regarded the note and the sign as an attempt by Hamas to lure them into an ambush, the investigation found. They identified blue barrels in the drone footage as a sign that the area could be rigged with explosives, the investigation found.

When Israeli forces heard calls of “help” and “hostages” from within the building, they interpreted it as “a terrorist deception attempt,” the investigation found.

Though the incident could have been prevented, said Lieutenant General Halevi, the chief of staff, “there was no malice in the event, and the soldiers carried out the right action to the best of their understanding of the event at that moment.”

Admiral Hagari, the military spokesman, praised the “courage, persistence and bravery” of the three hostages. “In a war zone full of dangers, they acted while trying to do everything in their power to signal to us that they were in the area.”

Families of remaining hostages and those freed from Gaza have said that the Israeli military campaign heightens the risks to the safety of the hostages. Mr Netanyahu says that sustained military pressure is necessary to get Hamas to release hostages, though the group has said it won’t negotiate until Israel first implements a ceasefire.

Mr Netanyahu said in a meeting with representatives of families on Thursday that Israel was “holding contacts at this very moment” to free more hostages, according to a statement about the meeting. “We will not give up on anyone,” he said.

Judi Weinstein, a 70-year-old US citizen, was declared dead on Thursday, according to Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. Ms Weinstein was killed with her husband Gad Haggai, also a US citizen, on the day of the attack and their bodies were taken and are still held by Hamas, a kibbutz spokesman said.

Victims of an Israeli strike outside Kuwait hospital in Rafah on Thursday. Picture: AFP

President Joe Biden expressed his condolences to the couple’s family on Thursday, as he had last week after Mr Haggai’s death was confirmed. “Jill and I are devastated to learn that American Judy Weinstein is also believed to have been killed by Hamas on October 7,” Mr Biden said in a statement, adding that he would continue to work to bring all the hostages home. The US has designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have continued efforts to broker another deal to release more hostages.

More than 21,000 people have been killed in the Gaza, most of them women and children, since the war began, according to health authorities in the enclave, whose figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Separately, Iranian-backed militants and Israeli forces traded fire across Israel’s northern border while Israeli leaders warned that time was running out for diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions in that area, heightening fears that the war in Gaza could spill into a regional conflict including Lebanon and Syria.

“The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out,” said Benny Gantz, a senior member of the Israeli war cabinet, on Wednesday. “If the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the Israeli military will do it.” The Israeli military reported “a large number of launches” toward Israel from southern Lebanon, and said it responded on Thursday with aircraft, tanks and artillery, including an airstrike on Hezbollah military compound.

Medics take in charge a wounded child at Kuwait hospital in Rafah. Picture: AFP

Israel on Thursday intercepted a drone from Lebanon in the Krayot area of northern Israel, the military said, while an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia claimed responsibility for a drone carrying explosives that crash-landed into part of the Golan Heights annexed by Israel.

The rise in violence comes after an airstrike in Syria on Monday killed a senior official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which oversees a network of paramilitary groups throughout the Middle East. Israel is believed to have launched the attack but hasn’t claimed responsibility.

At a funeral prayer service attended by thousands in Tehran on Thursday, Iranian leaders vowed to avenge the killing of the official, Sayyed Razi Mousavi.

Across the region, an array of Iranian-allied militia groups have sided with Hamas in the conflict, including Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have launched attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, disrupting a vital global shipping route.

The Wall Street Journal