High Court rejects petition to recognize mistakenly slain hostage as fallen soldier

The High Court of Justice rejected a petition on Sunday by the parents of slain hostage Alon Shamriz for him to be recognized by the Israel Defense Forces as a fallen soldier.

Shamriz was abducted from his home in Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas terror onslaught, and taken as a hostage into Gaza.

Shamriz, together with two other hostages, succeeded in escaping captivity in December 2023 in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood, before the three were mistakenly shot and killed by IDF soldiers operating in the area.

The three were recognized as victims of terrorism, but Shamriz’s parents asked the army to also recognize him as a fallen soldier, which would entitle him to a military burial and enable them to be recognized as parents of a fallen soldier.

The IDF maintains that military funerals are meant only for those who die while actively serving either in the regular army or the reserves.

The parents argued that since Shamriz had received a reserve duty callup on October 7 to the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, which, they said, he would have obeyed, he should be recognized as a fallen soldier. They also argued that he had been active in reserve duty before the war, and that he demonstrated military training and capabilities in extracting himself and his fellow hostages from captivity.

The High Court said in its ruling that in confining itself strictly to the letter of the law, it found that the army’s decision not to recognize Shamriz as a fallen soldier was lawful and the court therefore had no authority to intervene.

“This ruling does not detract in any way from the profound appreciation due to the late Alon, who demonstrated extraordinary and exceptional courage under unimaginably difficult circumstances,” the court said.

“We join in honoring his memory and wish to express our condolences to the petitioners and to his family,” it added.

Reacting to the ruling, Shamriz’s brother Yonatan called it a “spit in the face” of his family, saying it will “cause additional, unjustified, heavy grief.”

“This ruling was a political decision from beginning to end and should not have gone to the High Court in the first place,” he said in quotes reported by the Ynet news site.

There have been other cases of families seeking to have their fallen loved ones recognized as fallen soldiers even though they did not meet the criteria, a fact that the Shamriz family presented in their petition to the court.

Earlier this month, the IDF said it had killed a terrorist who held Shamriz hostage in Gaza.

Reacting to that announcement, Shamriz’s brothers Yonatan and Ido said that “the world is a slightly better place” without the Hamas terrorist, but that “no act will bring back our hero Alon to us, and no elimination [of a terrorist] can erase the pain and the void that has opened up in our lives.”