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Killing of Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer Talalka

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On 15 December 2023, three Israeli hostages were killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the Battle of Shuja'iyya in the Gaza Strip. The men had emerged from a building and were approaching a group of IDF soldiers when they were shot dead, in spite of the fact that they were shirtless and visibly unarmed while waving a makeshift white flag and calling out for help in Hebrew.[1] The incident provoked widespread domestic and international criticism of the IDF and of the Israeli government's attempts to resolve the hostage crisis through total war.[2] It also led to increased condemnation from abroad of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.[3][4] The IDF acknowledged that the three hostages, who were kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October attacks, had been killed after they were "mistakenly identified as a threat," prompting renewed protests in Israel against the incumbent Netanyahu-led government.

Killing of Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer Talalka
Part of the Battle of Shuja'iyya during the Israel–Hamas war
Shuja'iyya is located in Israel
Shuja'iyya
Shuja'iyya
LocationShuja'iyya, Gaza Strip
Coordinates30°50′00″N 34°50′00″E / 30.83333°N 34.83333°E / 30.83333; 34.83333
Date15 December 2023; 10 months ago (2023-12-15)
Attack type
Friendly fire
Deaths3 Israeli hostages
Perpetrator Israel Defense Forces

The killing of the hostages in Shuja'iyya marks one of many Israeli friendly fire incidents since the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war.

Overview

Involved parties

The three hostages killed by the IDF were identified as Yotam Haim (age 28), Alon Shamriz (age 26) and Samer Talalka (age 24); Haim and Shamriz were kidnapped from the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and Talalka was kidnapped from the Nir Am kibbutz. All three men had been kidnapped during the October 7 attacks.[5] Haim was a drummer for a heavy metal band,[6] Shamriz was a computer engineering student at Sapir College.[7] Talalka had been working in the kibbutz hatchery and was from the Bedouin town of Hura.[8]

After the deaths of the three hostages, a GoPro camera from a deceased military dog was discovered to have recorded their voices several days earlier. The dog was involved with a military exchange between Israel and Hamas, near to where they were held although it was undisclosed what they were recorded speaking about. It has been inferred that the militants holding them were killed in the fighting and allowed the men to escape.[9]

Events

According to an IDF official, the three male hostages emerged shirtless out of a building toward a group of IDF soldiers "tens of meters" away, with one carrying a white flag.[10] An Israeli sniper then opened fire on them, killing Shamriz and Talalka and wounding Haim. After being shot, Haim ran into a nearby building and shouted for help in Hebrew. The battalion commander then ordered the troops to hold their fire, while Haim was persuaded to exit the building but when he did so 15 minutes later,[11] a soldier acting against the battalion commander's order shot and killed him.[12][13]

Haaretz reported that the IDF soldiers followed the third hostage into the building and shot him dead because "they believed that it was a Hamas terrorist attempting to lure them into a trap".[14] Yediot Ahronot reported that Israeli soldiers had called for the third hostage to come out of the building he was hiding in, and then shot him when he reappeared.[15] The soldiers became suspicious upon retrieving the bodies for they had identifying marks suggesting that they were indeed Israeli hostages who had managed to evade their captors.[14] The hostages were identified after their bodies were returned to Israel.[16][17][18]

 
Cloth that the three hostages wrote on in Hebrew using spices: "Rescue 3 abductees"; displayed as part of the "Through Their Eyes" exhibition in Kfar Aza.

In days prior to the incident, soldiers had noticed the building the hostages were hiding in, 200 meters from where they would be eventually shot, had fabric signs reading "SOS" and "Help, Three hostages" hanging out of the windows. The letters were written on the fabric with leftover food.[19][20] The IDF had marked the house as a possible trap.[14] An investigation determined that when the unit which found the signs was redeployed from the area, it did not brief the battalion replacing them, whose troops were responsible for the incident, about the signs.[12]

On 4 March 2024, Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 released an audio recording of the incident.[21]

Investigations

According to The Jerusalem Post, a preliminary investigation found IDF instructions to soldiers in Shuja'iyya were to open fire on any man of fighting age who approached them.[22]

Following an investigation, the IDF stated the killings were preventable, but disciplinary actions were not needed since there was "no malice" on the part of the soldiers.[23]

Reactions

The mother of one of the deceased hostages sent a message to the unit involved in the shooting, stating she considered the incident not to be the soldiers' fault. She told the unit she instead placed the blame of her son's death on Hamas, adding: "may their name and memory be wiped off the face of the Earth."[9] On the contrary, the father of one of the hostages stated: "The shooter should not have opened fire, and if he is a proper fighter, he should have known that you only pull the trigger once you are certain it is a terrorist."[9] Despite this, he noted that Israeli troops "have encountered different situations where [Hamas] tried to ambush them and they suffered losses."[9]

Protests broke out outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv following the news, calling for a negotiated end to the hostage crisis.[24] Open University of Israel professor Yagil Levy said there was "a real gap between the formal rules of engagement and the practice on the battlefield",[4] and Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea called the incident a war crime.[2] Pro-Palestinian voices and critics of the IDF said that the incident demonstrated the Israeli military's indiscriminate use of force on civilians,[4] seeing the soldiers as having mistaken the surrendering Israeli hostages for surrendering Palestinians. Sari Bashi, program director at Human Rights Watch, stated that "nobody batted an eye before killing them", and that this case only came under investigation as the deceased turned out to be Israeli.[3] Roy Yellin of B'Tselem stated that his group had documented "countless incidents of people who clearly surrendered and who were still shot" and that the incident came after "a long trend of" escalating Israeli violence that went largely unpunished.[25]

From Israel's military and government

 
Israeli president Isaac Herzog with the deceased hostages' families during a memorial ceremony in April 2024.

On 15 December, the IDF stated that during operations in Shuja'iyya, they "mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat" and killed them with friendly fire.[26] A senior IDF officer stated that: "We have heard such screams from places in the past, and then there was fighting, after the alert turned out to be an attempt to draw IDF forces to a building and then open fire on them. Unfortunately, we thought it was such an incident."[27]

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered condolences to the families of the victims, while defense minister Yoav Gallant called the killings "a painful incident for every Israeli."[28] Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi stated that the shooting was against the IDF's rules of engagement and that the hostages had "done everything to show that they were harmless", including removing shirts to show that they were not carrying explosives.[3] The following day, the IDF posted a video of him speaking to the 99th Division of the IDF, reminding them to not shoot surrendering Gazans but to take them as prisoners of war.[29] Social media users pointed out that soldiers in the background of the video appeared nonchalant or were even laughing.[30]

When asked if the soldiers involved in the killing of the three hostages will be pulled from service, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col Richard Hecht stated that they will be "supported in every way possible" as the incident was "terrible and tragic mistake."[31] IDF spokesperson Lt. Col Jonathan Conricus stated that no disciplinary action would be taken against the soldiers, and that there would be no change to IDF ground operations as a result of the killing.[32]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bachega, Hugo (16 December 2023). "Israel Gaza: Hostages were carrying white cloth when shot, IDF says". BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b Barnea, Nahum (16 December 2023). "בשג'אעיה זו לא הייתה רק טרגדיה". Ynet. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Boxerman, Aaron; Hubbard, Ben; Fuller, Thomas (16 December 2023). "Israel Says 3 Hostages Bore White Flag Before Being Killed by Troops". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Erlanger, Steven (16 December 2023). "Hostage Deaths Fuel Israelis' Doubts About Netanyahu". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Cousin of NBC6 reporter's husband among 3 hostages mistakenly killed in Gaza". NBC 6 South Florida. 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  6. ^ Spiro, Amy (18 December 2023). "'You wouldn't sit and wait': Family mourns Yotam Haim, hostage mistakenly slain by IDF". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  7. ^ Spiro, Amy (17 December 2023). "Family mourns hostage Alon Shamriz killed by IDF in error, blames government for death". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Hostage Samar Talalka, mistakenly killed by IDF, buried; no government reps on hand". The Times of Israel. 17 December 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d Pokharel, Sugam (2023-12-21). "Israeli military dog captured hostages' voices on camera days before they were killed by friendly fire". CNN. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  10. ^ "Israeli captives mistakenly killed in Gaza held white flag, official says". Al Jazeera. 16 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  11. ^ Sebastian Ben Daniel,'The ‘mistaken’ killing of three Israeli hostages was a tragedy long foretold,' +972 magazine 9 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b IDF probe reportedly reveals soldiers who shot dead hostages weren’t briefed on Hebrew sign spotted ahead of time
  13. ^ Lubell, Maayan (16 December 2023). "Israeli hostages killed in Gaza were holding white flag, official says". Reuters. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  14. ^ a b c Kubovich, Yaniv (December 16, 2023). "Preliminary IDF Report: Hostages Killed by Soldiers Waved White Flag, One Yelled for Help in Hebrew". Haaretz. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  15. ^ Jobain, Najib; Frankel, Julia; Magdy, Samy (December 17, 2023). "Netanyahu says Israel is as 'committed as ever' to war after soldiers mistakenly killed 3 hostages". Associated Press. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  16. ^ Tabachnick, Cara (15 December 2023). "3 hostages in Gaza were killed by friendly fire, Israeli military says - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  17. ^ "Israel-Hamas war live updates: IDF says it mistakenly killed 3 Israeli hostages during fighting". NBC News. 15 December 2023. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  18. ^ "IDF troops mistakenly open fire and kill 3 hostages in northern Gaza battlefield". Times of Israel.
  19. ^ "Israel Gaza: Hostages shot by IDF put out 'SOS' sign written with leftover food". BBC. 17 December 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  20. ^ Lubell, Mayaan (17 December 2023). "S.O.S. signs found on killed hostages hideout, Israeli military says". Reuters. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Audio recording shows Israeli hostages' calls for help before being shot by Israeli soldiers". Middle East Monitor. 4 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  22. ^ Bohbot, Amir (25 December 2023). "IDF troops who killed hostages told to shoot fighting-age men in Gaza - report". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  23. ^ "Israel to take no action against soldiers who killed three Israeli captives in Gaza". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  24. ^ Barber, Harriet (16 December 2023). "Hostages mistakenly shot dead by Israeli troops 'were waving white flag'". Telegraph. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  25. ^ Goldenberg, Tia (17 December 2023). "In Israel's killing of 3 hostages, some see the same excessive force directed at Palestinians". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  26. ^ Tabachnick, Cara (15 December 2023). "3 hostages in Gaza were killed by friendly fire, Israeli military says". CBS News. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  27. ^ "האסון בשג'אעיה: החטופים הניפו בד לבן וצעקו "הצילו", הלוחמים ירו בניגוד להוראות - וואלה! חדשות". וואלה! (in Hebrew). 2023-12-16. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  28. ^ Michaelis, Tamar (16 December 2023). "What we know about the killing of 3 Israeli hostages by the IDF". CNN. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  29. ^ Fabian, Emanuel (16 December 2023). "After mistaken killing of hostages, Halevi says IDF 'doesn't shoot a person who raises his hands'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  30. ^ Ettinger, Marlon (18 December 2023). "'Can't get through the pep talk without cheeky grins': Video of IDF soldiers chuckling at hostage shooting briefing prompts outrage". Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  31. ^ "Gaza: 'We're going to hug' soldiers who shot hostages says IDF spokesman". Sky News.
  32. ^ Sforza, Lauren (2023-12-19). "IDF spokesperson says no changes on ground after hostages mistakenly killed". The Hill. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
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