[Salon] Preliminary IDF report: Hostages killed by IDF in Gaza waved white flag, one yelled in Hebrew

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

While it is remarkable that the Israeli occupation forces have admitted that their own soldiers shot and killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza yesterday, it appears from the HAARETZ news item transmitted below that they are are trying to put the best possible spin on the incident, notably by contending that "the troops did not follow the army's rules of engagement."

AL JAZEERA has reported that the the army's preliminary "investigation" has revealed that, before they were shot and killed, the three young men were not only waving a white flag and shouting in Hebrew but were also shirtless to try to make clear that they were not human bombs.

Why, as cited in this news item, "for some reason, the soldier felt threatened" is thus not clear.

While it is understandable that Israeli soldiers would not expect to encounter Israeli civilians in Gaza, it appears that the army's effective rules of engagement permit shooting on sight any adult male Palestinian whom its soldiers may encounter -- rules of engagement which would be consistent with reports of instant and otherwise inexplicable executions of actual Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

This lethal misunderstanding has been unfortunate not only for those killed but also for their killers, who, had their victims been, as they assumed, Palestinians, could have expected to be commended for a job well done or even hailed as heroic.

Preliminary IDF report: Hostages killed by IDF in Gaza waved white flag, one yelled for help in Hebrew

Samer Fuad El-Talalka, Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz

A preliminary IDF investigation of Friday's incident, in which three Israeli hostages who managed to escape Hamas captivity in Gaza were mistakenly identified as enemy and shot dead by the soldiers, concludes that they were killed because the troops did not follow the army's rules of engagement.

According to the investigation, a soldier who was stationed on one of the upper floors of a building in the area has identified three figures who held a long stick that had a white fabric attached to it.

The report states that, for some reason, the soldier felt threatened and opened fire on the group. Two hostages were hit and fell to the ground, and the third managed to escape into a nearby building.

At the same time, the soldier reported to his commanding officer that he had encountered who he had believed were Hamas members. The commander then arrived at the scene, while another IDF squad that was nearby followed the third hostage, who managed to escape into a hiding place inside the building.

The report says that as the soldiers approached the building, they began to hear shouts in Hebrew, asking for their help. The Israeli hostage who was hiding inside the building came out and ran inside again. According to the soldiers, they believed that it was a Hamas member who was trying to "pull them" into a trap. They proceeded to enter the building, where they killed the hostage.

When the soldiers retrieved the three bodies, they noticed identifying marks that raised a suspicion that they were indeed Israeli hostages who managed to escape.

Two days earlier, the soldiers spotted a building in the area that had the inscriptions SOS and "Help! Three hostages" written on one of its walls. An Israeli army force that operated in the region has marked the building as a possible trap.

As part of the investigation, the IDF probes if this building was where the hostages were kept originally, and that maybe they were deserted before trying to escape on their own.

A senior officer in the IDF's Southern Command stressed that, in recent days, no civilians have been seen in the area and that the soldiers are well aware of the prospect that Hamas members will try to lure them into a trap, pretending there are hostages in a certain location.