TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israelis were stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone after waving a white flag and shouting in Hebrew to show that they didn't pose a threat.
For some, the incident was a shocking example of the ugliness of war, in which a complex and dangerous battlefield is safe for no one. But for critics, the incident underscores what they see as excessively violent actions by the Israeli security apparatus against Palestinians. Except in this case, it shortened the lives of three Israelis who were desperately trying to save themselves.
“It's heartbreaking, but not surprising,” said Roy Yellin, public relations director for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. “We have documented countless incidents over the years where people clearly surrendered and were still shot.”
Yellin said the killings violated basic military ethics and international law, which prohibits shooting at people who want to surrender, whether they are combatants or not. But he said it was part of a long trend of largely unpunished excessive violence that has engulfed Israelis themselves in recent weeks.
According to a military official, the three hostages, all men in their 20s, emerged from a building near Israeli soldiers' positions in Gaza City's Shijaiyah district, where troops were fighting Hamas militants in fierce battles.
They waved a white flag and wore no shirts, perhaps to signal that they posed no threat. Two were killed instantly and the third ran back into the building, screaming for help in Hebrew. The commander gave the order to cease fire, but another round of gunfire killed the third man, the official said.
Army chief Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi said the hostages had “done everything possible” to make it clear that they posed no threat but that the soldiers had acted “in combat and under pressure.”
On Sunday, Halevi reviewed the rules for deploying troops and said the ban on opening fire on those who surrender must also apply to Palestinians.
“When you see two people who are not threatening you, who have no weapons, who have their hands raised and are not wearing shirts, take two seconds,” he said in comments broadcast on Israeli television. “And I want to tell you something that is no less important: If these are two Gazans with a white flag who want to surrender, will we shoot them? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. This is not the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the killings “broke my heart, broke the heart of the entire nation,” but he suggested that nothing had changed in Israel's intensive military campaign. With public opinion firmly behind the military effort, the deaths of the hostages were unlikely to result in a change in public sentiment.
According to Israel, several hostages have died while held captive by Hamas. But the deaths of the three hostages touched a nerve because they were killed by the forces that wanted to save them.
Some 129 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military, and their plight has gripped the nation, which sees their captivity as the embodiment of the security failure surrounding the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. The hostages' deaths prompted hundreds of protesters to take to the streets in anger.
It also came days after another incident raised questions about Israel's open fire rules. After Hamas militants opened fire on a busy bus stop in Jerusalem, an Israeli who had rushed to confront the attackers was gunned down by an Israeli soldier despite raising his hands, kneeling on the ground and tearing his shirt in a sign Threat. The military has launched an investigation.
Critics see a direct link between a long list of shooting deaths of Palestinians – from the killing of 32-year-old autistic man Eyad Hallaq to the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and many others over the years – and the incidents that led to the deaths of Israelis.
Most recently, B'Tselem accused the army of carrying out two “illegal executions” after video footage was released that appeared to show Israeli troops killing two Palestinian men – one incapacitated and one unarmed – during a military attack in the occupied territories in the West Bank. Military police are investigating, but human rights groups say such incidents rarely result in punitive action.
Critics say the hostage incident reflects the military's behavior toward civilians in Gaza. According to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which makes no distinction between combatants and civilians, more than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, about two-thirds of whom were women and minors.
Avner Gvaryahu, head of Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group that documents testimonies from former Israeli soldiers, said soldiers' reports from previous military operations in Gaza showed that once an area was deemed cleared of civilians, the military was ordered to do “anything.” Shoot anything that moves.”
“The army said this was a violation of the rules of engagement. I am skeptical of this based on what we know about previous operations in Gaza,” he said. “How many Palestinians were shot like that?”
The military says it is doing everything it can to protect civilians, but says it faces a complex theater with Hamas entrenching itself in densely populated civilian areas. Palestinians have repeatedly said Israeli soldiers opened fire in Gaza as civilians tried to flee to safety.
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv, disputed the comparison between the hostage killings and the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank or the killings of Israeli civilians in Jerusalem. He said each case must be viewed on its own merits and not as part of a broader trend.
“It shouldn’t have happened, but we are in a war and it is not a sterile environment,” said Michael, a former senior official in Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. “We have to understand the context.”
The killing of Israeli civilians in recent weeks has led to a reckoning among some Israelis. Nahum Barnea, a leading commentator, wrote in Yediot Ahronot that the hostage-taking incident was a crime and should not be passed over “as if it were nothing.”
Ben Caspit wrote in the daily Maariv that the rise of the far right in Israel has helped create an environment that makes it easier for the armed forces to open fire.
He also highlighted the general sentiment among Israel's far-right wing that there are no civilians in Gaza. This has raised concerns among critics that Israel Defense Forces are not being discriminated against in their fighting.
“Our finger has become too light on the trigger in recent years. Recent events have made it even easier,” he wrote. “There are civilians in Gaza and three of them were killed by our own soldiers this weekend.”
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