The Hostages and Missing Families Forum: Israel’s Defense Forces and the War on the Lives of Two Israelis Abducted from a Gaza Farm
“Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement. “My heart goes out to the grieving families in their difficult time.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that at least 120 other people are still alive in Gaza. Around 20 others are believed to be dead with their remains held by Hamas, according to Israeli officials.
According to the Hostages and missing families forum, militants attacked a poultry farm in Kibbutz Nir Am, killing a young Israeli Bedouin and his father. Haim, a musician, and Shamriz, a computer engineering student, were at their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when they were abducted, the group said.
“The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” it said, adding that “Given the ongoing exchanges of fire, remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks.”
“The grief and the pain, it just keeps accumulating,” said Addam Yekutieli, 37. “It’s even more of a tragic sign that the trajectory that we’re on — it’s not the right one.”
I felt outrage when I saw the news, said the protester. The military operation to eliminate threats to Israel must come “second to people dying,” she said, her voice shaking as she called for more negotiations to free the remaining hostages.
Soon after the announcement, which came after sundown on the Jewish Sabbath, thousands of Israelis flocked to the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv to protest the hostages’ deaths.
Israel has been upset over the issue of the hostages. The pressure on Israel’s political elites has only increased in the last few weeks as more hostages have spoken out about their experience in captivity.
An initial assessment suggested the hostages either “fled or were abandoned” by their captors during a skirmish, Hagari said. Hagari said that the military’s investigation was still going on and that they did not know if the abductees spoke Hebrew or not.
Human Rights Watch’s program director said that before they were killed, nobody acted to make sure they were actually Israeli civilians. The Israeli military can investigate the attacks on these three men, but it should also investigate other attacks on Palestinian civilians because they need to be brought to justice.
The three Israeli hostages who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on Friday had emerged shirtless from a building and were bearing a makeshift white flag when they were shot, the military said on Saturday.
“We consider this a grave blow to the already limited freedom of the press in Gaza and call on the army for a prompt investigation and explanation,” the FPA said.
A veteran cameraman for Al Jazeera was killed in Gaza by fire from an Israeli drone at a school, the Foreign Press Association said.
Adam Yekutieli, 37, an artist, said the deaths of the three hostages reinforced to him that Israel should negotiate another cease-fire to release more captives.
The Israeli Defense Forces and the Insurgents of a Palestinian Prisoner in the Area “Hohostages Square” in Tel Aviv
The group of people gathered in central Tel Aviv and marched through the streets at night, calling on others to wake up and join them.
He criticized Netanyahu’s government for not being interested in meeting with the families of the hostages. Chen said the Israeli government needs to be active. The release of Palestinians with blood on their hands must be part of the deal to get the hostages alive.
“We wanted to give them the gratitude of all the Jewish people [for] all they’ve done for us,” Chen said. I don’t think there was any other president who would allow his administration to do what they were doing to help us see loved ones.
The preliminary report concluded that the soldiers involved in the accidental shooting did not follow the IDF’s own rules of engagement. The hostages had dressed in civilian clothes and were waving a white flag before one of the soldiers shot them.
On Saturday afternoon at “hostages square” in central Tel Aviv, people gathered to hear from families of the captives. A man who is the father of a hostage said he met last week with leaders in the U.S.
The Israeli military said on Friday that the incident was sad and painful. He promised full transparency and blamed the Israel Defense Forces for everything that happened.
The military identified the three men killed on Friday as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, both taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Samer Talalka, who had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am, all in southern Israel near the Gaza border.
A cry for help could be heard when the third hostage fled into the building. The battalion commander ordered the forces to hold their fire. But the wounded hostage later re-emerged, after which he was fatally shot, the military statement said.
The soldiers were on high alert for attempts by Hamas to ambush Israeli forces, possibly in civilian clothes, as they patrols the area.
In a written statement describing the results of a preliminary inquiry, the Israeli military said its soldiers had been operating in Shejaiye, an area of Gaza City that has seen intense fighting. In the past week there have been at least nine Israeli soldiers who were killed while the military tried to take back the neighborhood from the Palestinians.
Israel is a war for our enemies, but we can’t stop. Israel’s response to the Israel Defense Forces has failed to cooperate
He said the military pressure is necessary to return hostages and achieve victory over our enemies.
But he made clear he would not scale back or halt the air and ground campaigns. He cast the conflict as “a war for our existence” and argued that maintaining military action was necessary to persuade Hamas to release more hostages.
“It is forbidden to shoot at those who raise a white flag and seek to surrender,” General Halevy said, adding, “The Israel Defense Forces, and myself as its commander, are responsible for what happened.”
Protesters in Tel Aviv expressed their anger over the deaths of their loved ones and called on the government to concentrate on reaching another hostage-for-prisoners deal with Hamas.
The death of these people has caused a great deal of anguish in Israel, prompting renewed calls for a temporary truce and a deal to allow more hostages to be released. The Israeli military chief of staff said that the three hostages had done all they could to make people believe that they were not dangerous.