An investigation into the “accidental” killing of three fleeing Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, by Israeli soldiers, found that one of the kidnappers had been filmed days before his death, screaming for help during a gun battle at the site where they were being held, according to For the site “The Times of Israel“.
The new details from the investigation, published by the Israeli army on Wednesday, are the latest indication of the lengths to which the hostages, Alon Shamirez, Yotam Haim, and Samer Al-Talalqa, went to reveal their identities to the Israeli army after they managed to escape the grip of their captors.
According to investigations, on December 10, members of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit encountered a group of Hamas fighters, who opened fire on them from a building. During the battle, a trained dog was sent to the building, which the military later determined was where the hostages were being held.
But the dog was killed by Hamas militants, before they were killed by Golani Brigade soldiers, allowing the three hostages to escape.
The investigation indicated that the camera installed on the dog recorded the voice of the hostage (believed to be Shamrez) screaming “help,” pointing out that there were other hostages at the scene, but they did not appear in the video footage.
The investigation revealed that “the camera recording was not monitored on December 18, after the dog’s body was recovered,” stressing that the hostages tried to approach the Israeli army forces, but they were shot, after the soldiers thought they were “terrorists.”
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Last Saturday, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevy, commented on the accidental killing of the three hostages, stressing that what happened was “in violation of instructions.”
Halevy said in a video speech in Hebrew published by Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee on the “X” platform, with a text translated into Arabic, that the incident in which the hostages were killed was “painful and horrific.”
Halevy added that the three kidnapped men moved towards the Israeli army soldiers, “and were killed by fire from our forces.”
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Halevy stressed that the Israeli army, as its commander, “bears responsibility for what happened and we will do everything in our power to prevent the recurrence of such cases in the later stages of the fighting.”
The Israeli military official pointed out that “the three kidnapped men did everything in their power to make us aware, as they moved without their shirts so that we would not be suspected of carrying an explosive device, and they held a white cloth.”
Halevy stressed that the shooting at the kidnapped persons was carried out in violation of the instructions for opening fire… as it is not permissible to shoot at someone who raises a white flag and seeks surrender, indicating that “this shooting was carried out during fighting and under pressure conditions.”
Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization in the United States and other countries, kidnapped the three hostages during its militants’ surprise attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
These attacks, which led to the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, and the kidnapping of about 240 by the Palestinian movement and transporting them to the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli authorities.
In response, Israel launches continuous bombardment on the Gaza Strip, killing about 20,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health authorities, destroying the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, and placing it under a complete siege.
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2023-12-21 02:22:36
