Soldier from battalion involved in mistaken killing of escaped hostage Yotam Haim visits his mom

A soldier from the battalion that mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages last week in Gaza, visited the mother of one of the hostages after she posted that she does not blame the military for the tragic incident.

Public broadcaster Kan reports that the soldier, from the Bislamach Brigade’s 17th Battalion, paid a visit to Iris Haim, whose son Yotam Haim, 28, was shot dead together with two other hostages, Alon Shamriz and Samar Talalka, by IDF troops who mistakenly identified them as a threat on December 15. The incident is still under IDF investigation.

The visit came after Haim recorded a message on Wednesday for the soldiers who killed him, telling them that she and her family love them and do not blame them for his death.

“I am Yotam’s mother. I wanted to tell you that I love you very much, and I hug you here from afar. I know that everything that happened is absolutely not your fault, and nobody’s fault except that of Hamas, may their name be wiped out and their memory erased from the earth,” she said.

“We received your message, and since then we are functioning again,” the soldier told Iris Haim, according to Kan. “Before that we were shut down.”

“Amazing, that’s what I wanted,” she responded, according to the report.