The Israeli army admitted it mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages on Friday who were being held by the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip.
The three victims were shot dead by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during fighting in the Shejaiya neighborhood, after soldiers wrongly identified them as a threat, the IDF said in a statement.
The three young Israeli men ― Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa ― were among the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, according to media reports. The bodies of the three victims, all in their 20s, were later transferred back to Israel where they were identified.
The incident sparked protests in Tel Aviv where hundreds of people gathered in front of Israel’s ministry of defense headquarters to demand the government secure the release of more than 130 hostages that are still believed to be held in Gaza by Hamas.
The Israeli army apologized for the incident. “The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families,” the IDF said in a statement, adding that an investigation into the incident will be conducted.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it an “unbearable tragedy.”
In a statement issued late Friday night, Netanyahu said Israel would “learn the lessons and continue with a supreme effort to return all our abductees home safely.”
The death of the three men will intensify international pressure on Israel to reach a truce deal with Hamas. The White House, which has recently criticized Israel for conducting an “indiscriminate bombing” of the Gaza Strip, said the killings was a “tragic mistake.”
Israeli air strikes continued Saturday morning, with Palestinian media reporting two separate raids that hit multiple buildings in the Jabalia neighborhood. The death toll of Israel’s campaign reached 18,800, according to Palestinian authorities, Agence France Presse reported.
