‘I was not angry for even a minute,’ says mom of hostage killed mistakenly by IDF

Iris Haim, whose son Yotam was shot dead in error by IDF troops in northern Gaza earlier this month, says she holds no anger toward the military for the tragic incident and reveals that the soldiers who were directly involved visited the family during the shiva, the initial seven-day mourning period.

Speaking to Channel 12, Haim says: “I was not angry for even a minute, neither was my husband. There was no anger at the IDF for even a moment. There was pain, sorrow, great pain… We were shocked.”

The mother, who following the incident recorded a message for the soldiers who killed him, telling them that she and her family love them and do not blame them for his death, says she and her husband “cried together” with the soldiers.

Referring to them as “sweet” young men, she says they told her that they “saw figures, and could not even imagine that they were hostages. They had no idea.”

Haim was mistakenly killed together with two other hostages, Alon Shamriz and Samar Talalka, by IDF troops who, in error, identified them as a threat on December 15. The incident is the subject of an ongoing IDF investigation.

Haim says her family received numerous visits by military personnel and families of military members and heard that “morale was low” after the killings. She says she felt compelled to release the message from the family on December 20.

“Yotam was free, even if he did not return to Israel alive. He was free from Hamas’s captivity. In that way, he beat Hamas. It was important for me to say that to the soldiers,” she says.

“Hamas didn’t kill him — it gives us a sense of comfort,” she says.