JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Saturday that three prisoners mistakenly killed by soldiers in Gaza carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew.

Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa, all in their 20s, were shot during operations in Gaza City on Friday, sparking protests in Israel.

They were among 240 Israelis taken prisoner during the Hamas raid on Oct 7.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that during fighting in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result, fired toward them and the hostages were killed”.

An army official said the prisoners were all “without shirts” and had “a stick with a white cloth on it”, but a soldier felt threatened and opened fire.

“Two are killed immediately, one is injured and runs back into the building,” the official said, adding that the soldiers heard “a cry for help... in Hebrew”.

Despite a ceasefire order, “there’s another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies”. The official called it a “tragic” event and “very hard day”, but said the troops had faced “intense combat in the area”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”.

Hundreds attended a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday calling on Netanyahu’s government to hold negotiations for the release of 129 prisoners still held by Hamas.

“I am dying of fear,” said Merav Svirsky, sister of prisoner Itay Svirsky, at the rally. “We demand a deal now.”

A one-week truce last month saw more than 100 Israeli prisoners freed in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but fighting has since resumed.

The three Israelis’ deaths have heightened already fierce scrutiny of how Tel Aviv is conducting its ground and air assault in Gaza.

The White House, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has voiced growing concern over civilian deaths.

“I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives _ not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” US President Joe Biden said this week.

The Israeli army said on Saturday it had raided bombed two schools in Gaza City. It said they were Hamas hiding places.

A funeral was held in Gaza for Samer Abu Daqqa, a journalist with TV network Al Jazeera killed the previous day by an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis that also wounded his colleague, Wael Al Dahdouh.

“He died hungry, they died with nothing to eat, with hunger. Oh my darling,” said his grieving mother, Umm Maher.

More than 60 journalists and media staff have died since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We were reporting, we were filming, we had finished and we were with the civil defence, but when we were on the way back, they hit us with a missile,” said Dahdouh, who lost his wife, two children and grandchild earlier in the war.

Aid crossing opens

In the face of growing international pressure, Israel announced a “temporary measure” allowing aid to be delivered directly to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

A World Health Organisation representative said the decision was “very good news”.

Aid has trickled into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Humanitarian agencies have said the volume is just a fraction of what is needed to help the estimated 1.9 million Gazans displaced since Oct 7.

Washington hopes the Palestinian Authority can resume control of Gaza as part of a renewed push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict _ a solution that Netanyahu has resolutely opposed.

The conflict has appeared to push any peace deal further out of view.

Western rebuke

Multiple Western governments issued a joint statement demanding that Israel take concrete steps to halt unprecedented violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

More than 280 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since fighting began in Gaza.

Israel’s police force said it had suspended several officers after they severely assaulted a journalist for Turkish news agency Anadolu as he was trying to take photos of Palestinians praying in annexed east Jerusalem.

And on Saturday eight Palestinians were arrested across the West Bank during Israeli raids, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The impact of the Gaza crisis continues to be felt across the Middle East, with fears of a new front opening on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where it has exchanged regular fire with Hezbollah.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2023