Israel troops kill three hostages, mistake them for ‘threat’: army

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the incident as ‘an unbearable tragedy’.

The IDF releases dramatic footage of troops of the elite LOTAR Unit battling Hamas operatives in a school in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood. Picture: IDF

The Israeli army said its troops shot and killed three hostages on Friday after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat.

“During combat in Shejaiya (a battleground neighbourhood of Gaza City), the IDF (army) mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” the army said in a statement.

“Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field,” it added, expressing “deep remorse over the tragic incident”.

The army identified the hostages as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, both taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during Hamas’s October 7 attack, and Samer El-Talalqa, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Am.

“This is an unbearable tragedy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

“The entire state of Israel mourns this evening. My heart goes out to the grieving families in their difficult time.”

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military “bears responsibility for everything that happened”.

“We believe that the three Israelis either escaped or were abandoned by terrorists who held them captive,” he said, adding: “We still don’t know these details.”

Hamas kidnapped around 250 hostages during its October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1139 people, according to official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory war against the group has killed more than 18,700 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli government has repeatedly stated that bringing home all of the hostages is one of its chief war aims.