Defense chiefs take blame for hostage killings, note complexities of Gaza battlefield
Halevi, Gallant and Netanyahu reject calls to halt fight for deal freeing remaining hostages, promise changes as some say liberal open-fire policies responsible for tragic outcome
Israel’s defense chiefs said they accepted responsibility for the accidental killing of three hostages attempting to escape captivity in Gaza, vowing steps to ensure no repeat of the tragic incident but also noting the difficulties soldiers face in Gaza’s “complex” urban battlefields.
Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Shamriz were killed on Friday morning as they attempted to approach a group of soldiers in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood while waving a white cloth and yelling for help in Hebrew. The trio had escaped their Hamas abductors, but soldiers feared they were an attempt to lure troops into a trap and opened fire, killing them before realizing the mistake, according to an initial Israel Defense Forces probe.
In a video statement, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi called the slayings “a difficult and painful event.”
“The IDF, and I as its commander, are responsible for what happened, and we will do everything to prevent the recurrence of such cases in the continuation of the fighting,” he said.
After the army admitted that it had not planned for the possibility of escaped hostages running free in Gaza, Halevi said the army had immediately sent new protocols to ground forces following a preliminary investigation.
“There may be additional cases in which hostages escape or are abandoned during the fighting, and we have the duty and responsibility to rescue them alive,” Halevi said.
According to the army chief, the soldiers who opened fire did so contrary to regulations preventing them from opening fire on someone with a white flag attempting to surrender.
“The three hostages did everything so that we would understand,” he said. “They moved without shirts so that we would not suspect them of carrying a bomb on their bodies, and held a white cloth so that we would understand.”
But Halevi added that the incident occurred “during combat and under pressure.”
“I try to place myself in the head of the soldier in Shejaiya, after days of hard fighting, close encounters, encounters with terrorists dressed in civilian clothes, who arrive in various deceitful ways. He must be alert and ready for any threat,” he said.
“A split-second decision can [result in] life or death,” he added. “In one moment, the complexity of our just war in Gaza was revealed.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant echoed Halevi’s remarks, placing blame on himself as head of the defense establishment, but noting the difficulty of fighting terrorist guerrillas in a dense urban zone, even as he blamed the outcome on “significant errors.”
“You must understand the circumstances and the environment in which our soldiers are operating,” he said, describing Shejaiya as a place toys can be booby trapped and troops are under constant threat of ambush.
“Sometimes tapes are played with the sounds of an infant crying, in order to [lure] soldiers into apartments and then detonate explosives. These are events that have taken place and that continue to take place,” he said, calling the incident among the most tragic he had ever known.
Gallant spoke at the Kirya military headquarters as thousands held a weekly demonstration on behalf of the hostages nearby, with many urging a deal to bring the hostages home, arguing that too many hostages were being killed in the fighting following the triple slaying.
But the defense chiefs, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the calls for a ceasefire.
“It is the fighting that brings the opportunities for the return of the hostages,” Halevi said.
Netanyahu, speaking alongside Gallant, said the killings “broke the hearts of the nation.”
But he vowed that Israel had to keep fighting until Hamas was destroyed.
“We are fighting for our existence, and we have to continue until victory” — despite international pressure and the losses Israel is suffering.
Gallant said he has spoken with all the families of the hostages who were killed, describing the calls as “charged, painful, and difficult, first of all for the families, but also for me personally.”
“The price of war is very high. We pay it every day, but when you know that you are on a path that is just, then you are willing to pay a price until you achieve your entire goal, which here is destroying Hamas and returning all the hostages to their homes.”
The stance appeared to be backed by President Isaac Herzog, who said on X that the justness of the military campaign had not changed. “The missions are clear: the return of the hostages and restoration of security for all Israelis.”
According to a senior officer in the Southern Command, citing an initial probe, the incident began after a soldier from Bislamach Brigade’s 17th Battalion stationed in a building identified three suspicious figures exiting a building several dozen meters away.
All three were shirtless, with one of the figures carrying a stick with a makeshift white flag, according to the investigation.
The soldier, who believed the men moving toward him was an attempt by Hamas to lure IDF soldiers into a trap, immediately opened fire and shouted “terrorists!” to the other forces.
According to the probe, that soldier killed two of the men, while the third man, who was hit and wounded, fled back into the building from which he came. Despite sounds of “help” in Hebrew being heard by troops in the area, when the third man emerged, he was shot by a second soldier and killed.
The soldier who opened fire upon identifying the three men did so against protocols, as did the soldier who killed the third man, according to the officer.
Still, the IDF understood that the conditions in the field led the soldiers to act in that way. The senior officer said the military has not identified any Palestinian civilians in Shejaiya in recent days.
Immediately following the incident, the IDF sent new protocols to ground troops taking into account the possibility of more hostages managing to flee captivity.
“There is a possibility that hostages were abandoned or escaped, and forces should be aware of the possibility of such an encounter and pay attention to tell-tale signs, such as speaking in Hebrew, raising hands, and clothing,” the new protocols read.
Shejaiya in northern Gaza has long been seen as a key Hamas stronghold, home to some of its most elite forces and heaviest fortifications. The area where the hostages were killed was close to the scene of a deadly battle on Wednesday where nine soldiers, including two senior commanders, were killed.
Uri Heitner, a historian and prominent figure within the Kibbutz Movement, was among many who linked the incident to the liberal open-fire policies pushed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. In late November, soldiers responding to a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem shot and killed a civilian who had also been trying to thwart the attack, despite the man holding his hands up and yelling out that he was an Israeli citizen.
“People like the gang leader, who was busy turning over the stalls of Arab market vendors in Hebron when others his age were risking their lives to defend the homeland, are preaching trigger happiness,” Heitner wrote on Facebook, referring to Ben Gvir, who was rejected for mandatory military service due to his extremist activity.
Netanyahu promised that “we will learn the lessons.”
