The Israeli military has released new information regarding the killing of 3 hostages
The incident of the Hamas jihadist kidnapping of two Gaza City hostages in late-time Israeli airborne fireballs
The hostages are thought to have fled to a building less than half a mile away. A day before they were killed, the military identified signs saying “SOS” and “Help, 3 hostages” in the area. However, the military also spotted blue barrels that Hamas has used to hold explosives and suspected a trap.
“The entire chain of command feels responsible for this difficult event, regrets this outcome, and shares in the grief of the families of the three hostages,” he said, adding, “The shooting at the hostages should not have occurred — this shooting did not match up to the risk and the situation. It was done under intense combat conditions, despite the complex circumstances.
In a statement included in the report on Thursday, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Brig. The military failed in its mission to rescue the hostages, stated Gen. Herzl Halevi.
The soldiers saw a figure emerge from the building. They had not heard the orders to hold fire because of noise from a nearby tank, and they shot and killed him. He was later identified as Yotam Haim, 28.
The commanding officers ordered the troops to hold fire so that they could identify the man who fled inside of the building. Cries in Hebrew of “Save me!” There was a loud noise, and it was heard that they were shooting at me. The officers repeated their orders to the troops to hold their fire and, after about 15 minutes, yelled toward the voice, “Come toward us.”
The lookout soldier who killed the first two hostages — Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samer Talalka, 24 — was operating with a line of sight obscured by a structure, suggesting that he may have not seen their white flag.
Five days before the hostages were killed, a unit had heard cries for help in a building where they had engaged in a gun battle with fighters. The building was fired at by helicopter and tank because the unit thought the cries were a ruse and that it was booby-trapped. Several Hamas fighters were killed, and the military believes that allowed the hostages to escape.
New details released by the Israeli military about the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza City include that there was a gap of 15 minutes between the fatal shootings of the first two hostages and the third and that a commander had urged the third hostage to come out of hiding just before he was fatally shot.
She had been held in Gaza for three days with no food or water and needed to have surgery for a gunshot wound. She didn’t get any painkillers and she had to replace her own bandages.
The account by Ms. Schem, who has talked about her 55 days in captivity with two television stations and in a photo essay published in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot, has touched a particular nerve in Israel.
It echoes the situation of other hostages, in that they don’t have food, water, or access to medical care. But her interviews and written account, which could not be independently confirmed, have offered the most detailed look at what life was like in captivity. Her family did not agree to an interview with The New York Times.
One day, as Ms. Schem struggled with a knot in her hair, her captor approached with scissors, she wrote. She screamed at him, telling him she would sort it out herself, which ended up taking her almost two weeks because of her injured arm, she said.
She told Israeli television that at one point, her captor called her and said that he had hurt her, but she still drew strength from seeing her mother.
Another day, her captor was upset after his friends were killed in an Israeli bombing, she said, adding that she consoled him only in order “to play the game.” Other times, the bombing was close by.
