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Families and supporters of hostages hostages held by Palestinian militants since the 7 October attack hold a demonstration outside the Israeli ministry of defence in Tel Aviv on 15 December 2023, calling for an immediate deal or their release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Israeli army said its troops shot and killed three Israeli hostages on 15 December in Shejaiya (a battleground neighbourhood of Gaza City), after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat.
- The IDF killed three Israeli hostages held in Gaza after
accidentally identifying them as threats. - The deceased were identified as Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samer
El-Talalqa. - The incident sparked protests in Tel Aviv, with the families
of those still held captive in Gaza calling for “deal” that would see
their loved ones released.
Israel said
its troops had killed three Gaza hostages after mistaking them for a threat,
with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic
incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli
military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa were shot during
operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The trio
were among those kidnapped during Hamas’s raids into Israel on 7 October, which
killed 1 200 people, mostly civilians, and saw an estimated 240 hostages taken,
according to Israeli authorities.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the death of the three hostages as an
“unbearable tragedy”, while the White House called the incident a
“tragic mistake”.
As news of
the incident spread, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of
defence in the city of Tel Aviv in protest.
Their bodies were transferred to Israeli territory for examination where it was confirmed that they were 3 Israeli hostages and were identified:
Yotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7.
Samer Talalka, who was…— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 15, 2023
The
demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards with the faces of
some of the 129 people still held in Gaza.
“Every
day, a hostage dies,” read one of the placards.
In
retaliation for the worst attacks in its history, Israel launched an air and
ground assault on Gaza, vowing to destroy Hamas, which rules the territory, and
bring the hostages back.
Hamas says
the war has killed at least 18 800 people, and reduced swathes of Gaza to
rubble.
In Tel
Aviv, relatives of hostages called on the government to reach an accord to
allow more people to be freed.
“I am
dying of fear,” said Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay
Svirsky. “We demand a deal now.”
In
November, a short-lived truce agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United
States saw more than 100 hostages freed in exchange for Palestinians held in
Israeli jails.
News
platform Axios on Friday reported that the director of Israeli intelligence
agency Mossad, David Barnea, was due to meet this weekend in Europe with Qatari
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Axios said
the officials would discuss resuming negotiations for a deal to secure the
release of the remaining hostages.
In the Gaza
Strip, fierce fighting continued, with Hamas claiming they had blown up a house
containing Israeli soldiers in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: US pushes Israel for ‘low-intensity’ operations in Gaza
News
channel Al Jazeera said that one of its journalists, Samer Abudaqa, had been
killed and another, Wael Dahdouh, had been wounded by “shrapnel from an
Israeli missile attack” in Khan Yunis.
More than
60 journalists and media staff have died since the war began, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists.
“We
were reporting, we were filming, we had finished and we were with the civil
defence, but when we were on the way back, they hit us with a missile,”
said Dahdouh, who lost his wife, two children and grandchild earlier in the
war.
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