JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers ignored cries for “help” when they stormed a Gaza building holding three hostages just days before killing them by mistake, said a military investigation published on Thursday.
The soldiers also heard “hostages” shouted in Hebrew on December 10, but interpreted that as a “terrorist deception attempt” by Hamas militants to lure them into the building in the Gaza City district of Shejaiya, the probe said.
Believing the building was rigged with explosives, the soldiers exited and killed five Hamas militants trying to escape, it added.
The hostages then probably fled the building also, and on December 15 Israeli soldiers shot them after mistakenly identifying them as a threat, the investigation said.
Two were killed instantly. The third hostage fled and soldiers were ordered to hold fire in order to identify him, the probe said.
Hearing cries of “help!” and “they’re shooting at me,” Israeli commanders asked the surviving hostage to advance toward the soldiers.
But two soldiers “who did not hear the order” because of “noise” from a nearby tank shot him dead.
The three hostages were all shirtless and one had been carrying a white flag.
On December 14, an army drone had identified signs of “SOS” and “help, three hostages” on a building close to where the three hostages were shot.
The army “failed in its mission to rescue the hostages in this event,” army chief Herzi Halevi said in a statement published along with the report of the investigation.
The three fatalities “could have been prevented,” he added.
Soon after the killings of the hostages were announced, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it “broke my heart” and “broke the whole nation’s heart.”
Israel has been mourning the deaths of the hostages identified as Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa.
The killings of the three men, all in their twenties, have sparked protests in Tel Aviv, where demonstrators demanded that the authorities come up with a new plan to bring home the remaining 129 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
About 250 people were taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 attacks in Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement that has left much of Gaza in ruins.
The territory’s Hamas government says the war has killed at least 21,320 people, mostly women and children.
Israel troops ignored pleas for ‘help’ before hostage killings in Gaza, probe finds
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Israel troops ignored pleas for ‘help’ before hostage killings in Gaza, probe finds
- The soldiers heard 'hostages' shout in Hebrew on Dec. 10, but interpreted it as a 'deception attempt' by Hamas, probe says
- Believing the building was rigged with explosives, the soldiers exited and killed five Hamas militants trying to escape, it adds
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
