The Israeli Defense Forces Investigated the Abduction of Three Kidnapped Palestinians from a Skirmish in the Area of Shijaiyah
“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 families that are grieving.
In exchange for prisoners and hostages, Hamas gave up more than 100 hostages in a seven-day truce. The three captives killed on Friday were among the more than 100 hostages believed still held by the Palestinian militant group.
According to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, militant attacks took the lives of a Bedouin man and his father at a poultry hatchery in Kibbutz Nir Am. The group said that Haim and Shamriz were at their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when they were kidnapped.
“The IDF emphasizes that this is an active combat zone in which ongoing fighting over the last few days has occurred. The military said that the lessons learned from the event have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field.
“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.”
She said that there was no choice but to bring the hostages home first. TheIsraeli military can always get Hamas but “every day that goes by, another hostage dies” and that’s the most important issue now.”
The hostages deaths came soon after sundown on the Jewish Sabbath, causing many Israelis to flock to the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The preliminary report Saturday by the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said the hostages had managed to evade their captors in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Shijaiyah before they were “mistakenly identified” as they exited a building on Friday. They were then shot by an Israeli soldier.
Hagari said that an initial assessment suggested the hostages were either abandoned or fled during the skirmish. Hagari only answered that the military investigation was still underway when asked if the abductees had their hands up.
The IDF inadvertently identified three kidnapped Israelis as a threat during the fighting. As a result, the IDF fired at them and they were killed,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, also known as the Israel Defense Forces.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed three hostages in Gaza City after they mistakenly identified them as a threat, the military said Friday.
“We call on the army for a prompt inquiry and explanation because we consider this a grave blow to the already limited freedom of the press in Gaza,” the FPA said.
Veteran cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in the Gaza Strip by fire from an Israeli drone as he worked at a school on Friday.
Adam Yekutieli said that the deaths of the three hostages made him think that Israel needs to negotiate another cease-fire to free more of the captives.
Israeli Security Forces, Israel’s Military and the Victims of the September 24th Shooting at the Tel Aviv ‘Hostages Square’
Earlier, on Friday evening after the news of the accidental shootings broke, a group of people gathered in central Tel Aviv and marched through the city’s streets at night, calling out to others to wake up and join them.
He said Netanyahu’s government was not interested in meeting the families of the hostages. Chen said that the Israeli government needs to be active. He said that if the hostages were to get back alive, there had to be a release of prisoners with blood on their hands.
“All the Jewish people have done for us and we want to give them our gratitude,” Chen said. “I don’t think there was any other president who was so willing to do anything possible, 24/7, on behalf of his administration to help us see our 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 been dressed in civilian clothes and waving a white flag before they were shot by a soldier who felt under threat, the military official said.
The people gathered at the “HOSTAGES square” in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to hear from families of the captives. President Biden, the US Secretary of State, and other top US officials met with the father of hostage Itay Chen last week.