2023-12-16 16:18:27
He umpteenth disaster sparked by Israel’s massive war operation once morest Hamas in Gaza He has among his last-minute victims the Argentine Alon Lulu Shamrizwho was one of the hostages taken by Hamas, and was shot by mistake by the Jewish forces themselveswho suspected that the stick with a white cloth that they waved with two other hostages asking for help “It might be a trap.”
Own Benjamin Netanyahu should have questioned his troops, describing the episode as “an unbearable tragedy”, But in the meantime, some details of what happened emerge, and it is difficult to understand how the soldiers who killed Shamriz, 26, Yotam Haim (28 years old) and Samer al Talalka (25 years old) might act with such a level of inefficiency, murdering their own compatriots.
“The forces in Gaza are facing ambushes all the time, the pressure is extreme”argued Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari. Israeli spokesperson, but the tragedy of Shejaiya, in the north of Gaza, reveals greater gravity at every moment, because it is known that the three young people, who ‘had been able to escape from Hamas, asked the Jewish soldiers for help in Hebrew, and in addition to agitating a white cloth, this did not prevent them from being murdered.
The army expressed its “strong regret for the tragic incident”, and these deaths bring the number of confirmed deceased hostages to 22, out of a total of regarding 250 people who were forcibly taken by Hamas to the Gaza Strip. Of them, 110 were released and 129 remain captive without it being known if they are alive.
“The three hostages, between 25 and 28 years old, appeared a few meters from one of our positions in the Shejaiya neighborhood,” said a military spokesman, adding that “When one of them saw them, they were not wearing shirts and had a stick with a white cloth, but the soldier felt threatened and shot thinking they were terrorists.”
“Two of the hostages died there,” the source said. “and the third hostage was wounded, so he ran towards a nearby building.”
“The soldiers heard a cry for help in Hebrew, and the battalion commander ordered the shooting to stop,” indicated the same spokesperson, who added another piece of information that chills the blood: “Despite that order, rounds were fired once more at the third person and then he died.” This indicates that despite the fact that the military heard the request for help in Hebrew, and that the squad leader asked that the shooting stop, one or more of the Jewish soldiers still shot the hostage who had been wounded.
Such a level of inefficiency explains why thousands of deaths have already been reported as “Collateral damage” of the Israeli offensive once morest Hamas, among the 18 thousand deaths, mostly civilians, estimated so far.
Marked destination
Yotam Haim, Argentinian Alon Shamriz and Samer El Talalqa were among the more than 250 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, when the attackers killed more than a thousand Jewish civilians.
In response, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas and began an offensive in the Gaza Strip, which now extends to the entire territory, including the south where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians are crowded. The Ministry of Health in Gaza, governed by the Islamist movement since 2007, states that Israeli bombings have caused at least 18,800 deaths so far, 70% of them women, children and adolescents.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari explained Friday that during fighting in Gaza City, troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result, soldiers fired at them.”
“Call for help in Hebrew”
What is incomprehensible is how, according to the first elements of the investigation, the hostages appeared asking for help in Hebrew, and yet they were murdered by their own compatriots.
After a first protest on Friday, relatives of hostages will gather once more on Saturday in Tel Aviv to demand the release of the rest of the captives. “I’m scared to death. We demand an agreement now,” declared Merav Svirsky.
A truce agreement, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, allowed a week-long pause in fighting at the end of November and the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Currently, there are still 129 hostages in Gaza.
Following the announcement of the death of the three hostages, the news website Axios reported that the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, David Barnea, plans to meet this weekend in Europe with the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman. Al Thani, to contemplate a second phase of truce that would allow more detainees to be released.
“Fierce battles”
The UN and NGOs describe living conditions in the overcrowded Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel since October 9, as a nightmare. Palestinian civilians are crowded into ever smaller areas.
Around 1.9 million inhabitants (85% of its population) were displaced, according to the UN. Many had to flee several times as the fighting spread across the territory.
Hamas reported on Saturday “fierce fighting” in the Jabaliya sector (north), air strikes and artillery fire in Khan Yunis, the new epicenter of the fighting in the south of the enclave.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, eight Palestinians were detained in Nablus, where the Israeli army launched an operation, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported.
Israel, for its part, continues to be the target of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. On Saturday, anti-aircraft sirens were heard in Zar’it (north), where “a flying device”, not specified, “coming from Lebanon” was intercepted, the army said.
Faced with growing international pressure, especially from its American ally, Israel announced the “temporary” opening of a point to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
The measure aims to decongest the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt, the only entry point for food and medicine. Since the start of the war, aid enters through this step in a trickle and depends on Israel’s authorization.
Al Jazeera journalist killed
In addition to civilians, journalists also continue to pay a high price in this war.
An Al Jazeera reporter died on Friday. The head of the network’s Gaza office, Wael Dahdouh, who lost his wife and two of his children at the start of the war, was himself wounded in the arm by missile shrapnel.
“Yesterday he came to say goodbye […] He didn’t eat anything. “He died with an empty stomach,” the mother of Sameer Abu Daqqa, the Al Jazeera journalist, who was buried in Khan Yunis, told AFPTV on Saturday, her voice breaking with emotion.
More than 60 journalists and media staff have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Photographer Mustafa Alkharuf, from the Turkish press agency Anadolu, was injured following being beaten by Israeli police in east Jerusalem, annexed and occupied by Israel.
AFP/HB
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