2023-12-17 00:58:46
New details on the three Israeli hostages shot down by friendly fire in Gaza. According to a preliminary investigation by the Hebrew Army, the three hostages were shirtless and waving a white flag when they were shot by Israeli soldiers. Specifically, a military man stationed in a building who, according to the report collected by Time, felt “threatened” by the three unarmed men. After the initial fire, one of them managed to escape and took refuge in a nearby building. As the soldiers approached, they heard cries in Hebrew for help, but their pleas were ignored because, according to the investigation, the military thought it was a Hamas militant trying to set a trap for them. So they entered the building and killed the man at gunpoint.
The report says the soldiers violated the rules of engagement, which prohibit the Israeli military from firing at those waving a white flag as a sign of surrender. “It is prohibited by international humanitarian law (and basic moral principles) to shoot at those who carry a white flag, whether or not they are combatants and regardless of their nationality and religion,” said Btselem, the main human rights organization in Israel
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This class of incidents, however, does not seem to be isolated events. This same week Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an organization based in Geneva, reported that Israeli soldiers have turned several schools in northern Gaza where the displaced were taking refuge into military bases where dozens of civilians would have been “executed”, including women and children.
The three Israeli hostages, all of them in their twenties and kidnapped by Hamas on the fateful October 7, had apparently been calling for help for several days. Two days before the incident in the neighborhood of Shujaiya, located in Gaza City and one of the epicenters of the fighting in recent weeks, soldiers saw a building on which the inscriptions SOS and “Help, three hostages” had been painted on the facade, according to the report. But instead of inspecting the area, the military ended up marking the building as a possible trap for their enemies. “The terrorists are moving around in civilian clothes, in leggings and jeans, there are a lot of ambushes. They’re trying to deceive us, they’re talking to us in Hebrew,” military spokesman Richard Hetch said on Friday. “The forces are under intense pressure,” he added.
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