During fighting this week in Shejaiya, Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces claimed to have accidentally murdered three captives who were holding a stick covered in white fabric. According to the chief of the military, this was “against the rules of engagement.”
The names of the three guys that were slain are Yotam Haim, 28, Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samer Talalka, 22,.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum stated that Haim is survived by his parents, brother, and sister. According to the site, he was an accomplished pianist, an animal lover, and a passionate Italian cook. Haim was abducted on October 7 from Kibbutz Kfar Aza by the terrorist group Hamas, the Israeli Defense Forces said.
According to the forum, Shamriz resided in Kibbutz Kfar Aza’s Young Generation community. According to the forum, Shamriz was supposed to attend Sapir College to study computer engineering.
Related Posts
Talalka worked at a hatchery close to Kibbutz Nir Am alongside his father and brother. He was a resident of Kfar Hora. Among the ten children, he is the oldest son. On October 7, Talalka was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Am by the terrorist group Hamas.
The three captives were “mistakenly identified” as a danger, the IDF claimed on Saturday.
Information about their first probe into the hostage-taking was made public by the Israel Defense Forces, who stated that the event occurred in an area with “very intense fighting.”
The IDF reported that the three detainees emerged from a structure a short distance from the soldiers, naked save for a white towel wrapped around their stick. According to an IDF spokeswoman, a soldier opened fire after seeing them as a threat, instantly killing two captives.
Someone yelled “help” in Hebrew as the third captive, who had been hurt, fled back into the building from where the other two had come. The battalion commander then gave the order for his men to cease fire. However, an IDF spokesman claims that another burst was shot in defiance of the command, killing the third captive.
After the three men’s bodies were brought into Israeli territory for analysis, it was determined that they were Israeli captives.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi stated in a video statement on Saturday that the three captives “did everything possible so that we would understand — they moved around shirtless so that we wouldn’t suspect them of carrying explosives and they held a white cloth, but the tension overcame all of the above,”
Shooting someone who waves a white flag and tries to surrender, he said, “is forbidden.”
“However, this shooting was carried out during combat and under pressure,” Halevi said. “There may be additional cases in which hostages escape or are abandoned during combat, and we have the duty and responsibility to rescue them alive.”
Halevi declared that the incident was his and the IDF’s fault and that they “will do everything to prevent such incidents from recurring.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident an “unbearable tragedy.”
The IDF said that its military campaign in Gaza will press on despite the deaths of the three hostages by Israeli fire.
“We are going to continue with the mission here. And for us, there is no such luxury as to stop and think and pause and ponder after each event on the ground,” IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said on Friday.
And on “such a chaotic battlefield” Conricus said he can’t rule out something like this happening again.
One of the most difficult and dynamic settings for combat that humans have ever encountered is open ground. Thus, we are unable to rule anything out. Conricus stated, “And for that reason, we have also given instructions to every soldier on the ground.
