It is the beginning of a mea culpa for Israel. The Israeli army announced Sunday that three hostages who died in Gaza were “probably” killed on November 10, 2023 by one of its airstrikes, according to the results of an investigation into the circumstances of their deaths.
In December, Israel brought back the remains of soldiers Nick Beizer and Ron Sherman and French-Israeli Elya Tolédano from the Gaza Strip, where they were being held hostage. The army said they were killed “during the elimination of Hamas’ Northern Brigade commander Ahmed Ghandour.”
“No information on the presence of hostages”
“The investigation indicates that the three hostages were being held in an underground complex from which Ghandour was operating,” but the army had “no information on the presence of hostages in the complex targeted” by the strike. Hamas had confirmed in late November that Ahmed Ghandour had been killed by the Israeli army.
A relative of one of the three hostages confirmed that he had been informed of the results of the investigation a few hours before the army’s statement was published.
In December, the Israeli army had already announced that it had mistakenly killed three Hamas hostages in the northern Gaza Strip, Yotam Haim, Alon Shmriz and Samer al-Talalqa, shot dead by soldiers who had not identified them as such.
A particularly deadly conflict
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures, which also includes hostages killed in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped in the attack, 97 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has left at least 41,206 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which did not specify the proportion of fighters and civilians killed.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
