Israel accepts the "failure" of its mission to rescue three hostages it killed: "The attacks could have been avoided"

The Israeli Army has accepted its “failure” in its mission to rescue the three hostages that Israeli troops killed by mistake in Gaza on December 15, after publishing this Thursday an investigation with more details of the incident.

“The Israeli forces failed in their mission to rescue the hostages,” and “the entire chain of command feels responsible,” said the Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, in the conclusions of the investigations carried out by the Army that have been published. released this Thursday.

According to Halevi, “the attacks on the captives could have been avoided,” since “in a situation where there is no immediate threat and no clear enemy is identified, a moment of examination is necessary before shooting.” “This is necessary to avoid, among other things, incidents in which our forces fire on our forces,” he added.

As he acknowledged, in the case of the three dead hostages, they “did not move threateningly and were holding a white flag,” so it would have been “correct to confirm the identification before shooting,” but “the pressure conditions and the operational environment made it difficult for soldiers to implement these measures. However, the Israeli Army is not expected to take disciplinary action against the soldiers who killed the three captives.

“They didn't hear the order”

According to the military investigation, one of the hostages, Yotam Haim, was shot a quarter of an hour after soldiers operating in the Shijayia neighborhood of Gaza City had already shot the two other hostages, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz. According to the investigations themselves, Haim fled after the shots were fired at the two other captives, and “approximately 15 minutes later, the battalion commander heard cries in Hebrew for 'help.'”

After that, “he gave orders to suspend fire, shouting in Hebrew 'come to us,'” after which the hostage “emerged from a building toward the Israeli forces,” but “two soldiers, who did not hear the order” to cease the fire “due to the noise of a nearby tank, they shot and killed him.”

According to the investigation, before they were killed by mistake, the hostages “were walking shirtless, and one of them was waving a white flag, standing at a point of limited visibility with respect to the position of the soldier who shot.”