Parents of 3 hostages mistakenly killed by IDF meet for the first time

The parents of three hostages mistakenly shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood met for the first time, in an emotional gathering broadcast on Friday evening.

Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Lulu Shamriz managed to escape Hamas captivity before they were mistakenly shot dead by troops in a tragic friendly-fire incident last month.

The parents of the three gathered in a residential home, embraced, shook hands and shed tears together in a meeting that was broadcast on the Kan public broadcaster.

“Today we should have had a party here, in this house, a party,” said Avi Shamriz, Alon’s father. “And to hug the children, and to kiss them, and to hand out sweets to everyone.”

“It turned out the other way,” Fouad Talalka, Samar’s father, lamented.

“Instead of that, I am growing a beard, and he [Samar’s father] is grieving, and Yotam’s family is grieving. It should not have been like this,” Shamriz added, referring to the traditional sign of mourning.

"אם הבכי היה מחזיר את כולם, היינו כולם בוכים": שלושה שבועות אחרי תקרית הירי בשגגה שהביאה למותם של החטופים אלון שמריז, יותם חיים וסאמר טלאלקה, נפגשו הוריהם בפעם הראשונה. מתוך הכתבה של אמיר גרא, שתשודר הערב 20:00 ב-#חדשותשישי עם @moavvardi pic.twitter.com/43SoRqh00x

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“And these thoughts don’t leave our head,” Talalka continued. “Until now, you think we can sleep like normal people? You put your head on your pillow, and you are reminded of him, may his memory be a blessing. From October 7 until now, it doesn’t get out of your mind. Your son is inside your heart.”

As Shamriz began to burst into tears, Talalka placed his arm around him, telling him that “tears won’t bring them back.”

“If the tears could bring them back, we would all cry all the time, so that they would bring everyone who died, from the start,” he said. “And so we should look ahead, be strong, and that’s it. That is the important thing to do now.”

A military investigation into the accidental killing of the three escaped hostages found that one of them was recorded days earlier shouting for help during a gun battle between troops and Hamas terrorists at a site where they were being held.

The details from the probe, released by the Israel Defense Forces in December, were the latest indication of how far hostages Shamriz, Haim, and Talalka went to signal their identities to the military after they managed to escape captivity. The IDF said the three approached troops shirtless, waving a white banner and with their hands up, but the soldiers nonetheless opened fire on them.

The escaped hostages had also left a sign reading “SOS” and, in Hebrew, “3 hostages. Help,” on another building in the area, but soldiers who earlier found the messages believed it was a ruse by Hamas. The signs were written on fabric using leftover food.

In an effort to prevent such a tragedy from recurring, IDF soldiers were shown photos of hostages remaining in Gaza, in the hopes that they could more easily identify them if needed, according to a Channel 13 report last month.

Hamas kidnaped the three hostages during the terror group’s onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, when gunmen rampaged through communities, massacring some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 240 to Gaza.

It is believed that 136 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 25 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively.