The Israeli military announced Friday that soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip had killed three Israeli hostages who were “mistakenly” identified as a “threat.”
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“During fighting in Choujaiya (North), the army misidentified three Israeli hostages as a threat. The soldiers then opened fire in their direction and they were killed,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on television.
The victims are Yotam Haïm and Samer al-Talalka, both abducted from Kibbutz Nir Am during the deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, an army statement said.
During the fighting in Shejaiya, the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as threats and shot them dead. 1/4
– IDF (@IDF_IDF) December 15, 2023
The family of the third hostage killed did not want his identity made public.
Their bodies were returned to Israel.
The army emphasized that they died “in an active combat zone” where its soldiers had been fighting “a continuous battle” against Hamas militants for several days.
She expressed her “deep regret” to the victims' families, adding that “their task is to locate the missing and bring the hostages home.”