This emerges from the initial investigation results, the Israeli military announced on Saturday. A soldier saw the three hostages appear tens of meters away, a spokesman said. The army had previously vowed to be more careful in the future.
Israeli forces have been ordered to exercise increased caution following the accidental killing of three hostages in the Gaza Strip. “We have told our soldiers to exercise extra caution when confronted with people in civilian clothing,” Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told CNN. According to media reports, hundreds of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Friday to protest the incident.
Investigations are ongoing
It is still unclear how the incident could have happened, said Conricus. In this context, the spokesman pointed out that many fighters from the militant Palestinian organization Hamas fought against Israel’s army in civilian clothing. “A sad event like this will not shake our resolve or distract us from our clear goal of destroying Hamas,” Conricus stressed.
The army announced on Friday evening that its own forces had mistakenly identified the three male hostages as a threat and shot them during an operation in the Hamas stronghold of Shejaiya in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip. It is still unclear how they were able to get into the area of the fighting.
It is being investigated whether they escaped their captors or were intentionally left behind, it said. The fighting took place in a civilian and therefore very challenging environment, said Conricus. Almost all enemy units that attacked the Israeli troops with anti-tank rifles were dressed in civilian clothes.
Thousands dead in the Gaza Strip
The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, which terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups carried out in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,200 people were killed and around 240 hostages were taken to Gaza. Israel responded with massive air strikes and began a ground offensive in late October. According to the latest Hamas figures, around 18,700 people have been killed in attacks in the Gaza Strip so far.
Meanwhile, in Norway, representatives of Israel and Qatar wanted to restart negotiations on Saturday for the release of hostages held by the militant Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Wall Street Journal reported this without providing any sources.
On December 1st, a ceasefire between the Israeli army and the fighters of the radical Islamic Hamas and with it the exchange of hostages and prisoners expired. The ceasefire in the new Middle East war since the Hamas massacres in Israel on October 7th lasted seven days.
