Israel mourns on Saturday the death of three hostages killed “by mistake” by its own soldiers in the Gaza Strip, where the army is increasing air raids despite pressure from its American ally for more restraint.
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The news shook Israel on Friday evening: three Israeli hostages “mistakenly identified” as a “threat” were killed by soldiers operating in Shujaiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The victims are Yotam Haïm, a 28-year-old Heavy Metal drummer, Samer al-Talalqa, a 25-year-old Bedouin, and Alon Lulu Shamriz, 26, the Israeli army announced, specifying that the bodies had been repatriated to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately regretted “an unbearable tragedy” which plunged “the entire State of Israel into mourning”, while in Washington the White House spoke of a “tragic error”.
During the fighting in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and shot them. 1/4
— Tsahal (@Tsahal_IDF) December 15, 2023
Shortly after the announcement, families of hostages and supporters marched with photos of captives in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to demand an immediate agreement for their release.
“Every day a hostage dies,” read one poster, while an Israeli flag placed in the street was sprayed with red paint suggesting blood.
“The only way to free the living hostages is through negotiation,” said Motti Direktor, a 66-year-old protester on the spot. “We’re here after an overwhelming evening, and I’m scared to death. We demand an agreement now,” said Merav Svirsky, whose brother Itay is hostage in Gaza.
A second truce?
Around 240 people were captured in the bloody attack by Hamas commandos on October 7 on Israeli soil which left around 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “destroy” Hamas and launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip which left 18,800 dead, including 70% women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas health ministry.
A truce agreement obtained through mediation by Qatar allowed at the end of November a one-week break in the fighting, the release of around a hundred hostages held by Hamas and 240 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel, as well as the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid.
Shortly after the announcement of the death of the three hostages, the Axios site indicated that David Barnea, the head of Mossad, the Israeli foreign secret service, is to meet this weekend with the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani.
The meeting is planned in Europe and must focus on a second phase of truce in order to allow the release of hostages, continues Axios without specifying the location of this meeting or the number of hostages who could thus be released among the approximately 129 still estimated detained in Gaza.
Journalist killed
If Israel is in mourning on Saturday, Qatar and Gaza are also in mourning after the death of Samer Abou Daqa, an Al Jazeera cameraman killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Qatari channel .
Al Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza, Waël Dahdouh, who lost his wife and two of his children at the start of the war, was injured in the arm by shrapnel and transferred to a hospital in Khan Younes .
“We were reporting, we had filmed, we were finished and we were with the civil defense but as we were coming back they hit us with a missile. As long as I’m breathing, there’s no problem. God help us, that’s all,” Waël Dahdouh told AFP.
More than 60 journalists and media workers have died since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“The Gaza teams, particularly Waël and Samer, played a crucial role in revealing the scale of the destruction and horror of Israeli atrocities,” Al Jazeera said.
Kerem Shalom
After more than two months of war and a total siege imposed by Israel since October 9, living conditions in Gaza are nightmarish for Palestinian civilians forced into ever-smaller areas, estimates the UN.
Israel on Friday authorized the “temporary” opening of a new entry point for humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza, while continuing intense airstrikes despite US pressure for more restraint.
The decision to authorize humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing aims to decongest that of Rafah, the only entry point for food and medicine, while Israel tightens inspection of trucks transporting food. ‘help.
“Everything is destroyed”
Some 1.9 million residents, or 85% of its population, have been displaced, according to the UN, many of whom have had to flee several times in the face of widespread bombing and fighting.
In Khan Younes, in the south of the territory, the Hamas Ministry of Health reported Friday morning “dozens of dead and injured” in strikes.
In Rafah, Bakr Abu Hajjaj survived one of them. “There are wounded, everything is destroyed, we have been suffering this war and this destruction for 70 days,” he laments, interviewed by AFP.
While in Israel on Thursday and Friday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan asked Israeli officials to move to a “lower intensity” phase in the short term.
In an unprecedented sign of tension over the scale of Palestinian losses, US President Joe Biden declared on Tuesday that Israel risks losing the support of the international community due to its “indiscriminate” bombings.
The head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna is expected in Lebanon on Saturday and in Israel on Sunday to try to avoid a regional conflagration at a time of growing tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border and in the Red Sea where the Yemeni Houthi rebels, close to the Hamas, threaten maritime traffic.
2023-12-16 01:52:39
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