Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Wherever trees have been left standing in Gaza, they are being chopped down for fuel. When wood – furniture and doors included – cannot be found, Gaza’s residents burn waste.
To cook or heat themselves, people in the Palestinian enclave are burning what they can find in crude stoves they have made of clay, scrap metal or loose bricks to replace kitchen cookers or gas stoves. Israel’s siege means it is no longer possible for people to find gas.
But finding fuel is a difficult task – it can take hours to find a tree to cut and transport home – and comes with health concerns about the smoke released, especially as so many are living in overcrowded conditions.
According to the World Food Progamme, 70% of displaced people in southern Gaza rely on firewood for fuel, but the number of those with no fuel at all has doubled over the past two weeks to 15%.
Nazmi Mwafi, a 23-year-old who uses social media app Snapchat to send out daily updates from Gaza, said finding wood for fuel in the colder weather is one of the biggest preoccupations people now have, and has been made more difficult by the dwindling number of trees.
“We cut any tree [we find], there’s no specific type. We use it to cook, to eat, we heat water with it to wash and to drink. So it’s a big task to go and get the wood,” said Mwafi.
“We go to the woods but it’s a very far distance to travel. It takes you hours, because you have to cut the trees, then you have to drag them a long way through sandy land until you reach a main road.”
Egyptian air defence shot down a suspected drone off the Red Sea coast near the resort town of Dahab on Egypt’s eastern Sinai coast, two security sources said.
The security sources said the drone’s origin was unknown, Reuters reported.
Witnesses in Dahab said they saw an object fall into the water. They said they saw another flying object fall in the nearby mountains.
In late October, drones caused explosions that rocked two other Red Sea towns, which Israel said Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike its territory.
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.
The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military Jeep then approaches Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and fires multiple shots at him until he is still. Soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car. They shoot at him from close range.
B’Tselem said that Shahin was killed instantly and Jundob died of his wounds the next day.
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident,” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south, according to an AP report.
More is in on Iran’s official Irna news agency reporting that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran.
Reuters reports the news agency said the person, who it did not name, “communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad”.
Irna said the accused had handed classified information to a “Mossad officer” with the aim of “propaganda for groups and organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic”.
It did not say where the alleged handover had taken place.
It was not clear when the person was arrested, but Irna said an appeal had been rejected.
The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in airstrikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders.
At least 14 people died from airstrikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia and dozens more were killed in a separate airstrike that hit another home in Jabalia, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Reuters reports that Wafa also said a large number of civilians were trapped under rubble.
With intense ground fighting across the length of the Gaza Strip and aid organisations warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, the US has warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate” airstrikes killing Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday and Friday, carried a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders, US officials said.
During Sullivan’s visit, Israeli officials publicly emphasised that they would continue the war until they achieve their aim of eradicating Hamas, which may take months.
Washington hinted on Friday at disagreement with Israel over how quickly to scale down the war, with Sullivan saying the timing was the subject of “intensive discussion” between the allies.
An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said.
Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh had gone to Farhana school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the broadcaster said.
“The network holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing their journalists and their families,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Following Samer’s injury he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to reach Nasser hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, the network reported. The correspondent – whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October – said the Al Jazeera crew had been accompanying civil defence rescuers.
Al Jazeera’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, paid tribute to the cameraman on X (formerly Twitter), saying:
His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told a general assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document [their] crimes and inform the world, the journalists”.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel – 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.
The CPJ called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
Iran’s official Irna news agency has reported that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Reuters quotes the news agency as saying:
This person communicated with foreign services, including Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad.
Irna did not name the person.
Iran has executed an “agent of Israel’s Mossad” intelligence service, Reuters has reported in a quick snap, citing Iranian media.
More on that as it emerges.
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. My name is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown of the latest news.
Israel has said its troops killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during fighting in Gaza City.
Hundreds of people later marched in Tel Aviv and gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in protest, displaying placards with the faces of some of more than 130 people Israel believes to still be held by Hamas in Gaza and calling for their immediate release.
Meanwhile, an Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the territory, the network has said.
The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was “left to bleed to death for over five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him”, it said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
More on those stories soon. In other developments as it turns 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mourned the three hostages killed by Israeli forces by mistake, saying on X (formerly Twitter): “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped.”
Israel reopened an aid crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday after earlier approving the “temporary measure”. Netanyahu’s office said after weeks of pressure that the aid would be allowed to be delivered directly to Gaza through its Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, have said they are suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its war in Gaza.
The US should back the UN security council’s action to protect Gaza’s civilians, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW’s UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said on Friday that the US should act at the UN security council to “pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians”.
The German airline carrier Lufthansa has said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv starting on 8 January. In a statement released on Friday, Lufthansa said: “In a first phase, Lufthansa Airlines will initially offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich. Austrian Airlines is planning eight weekly connections and SWISS five weekly flights.”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told the Global Refugee Forum that what continued to shock him was the “ever increasing level of dehumanisation” with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said: “The fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war, when in fact what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values… This is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
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2023-12-16 10:40:46Z
CBMimAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVndWFyZGlhbi5jb20vd29ybGQvbGl2ZS8yMDIzL2RlYy8xNi9pc3JhZWwtZ2F6YS13YXItbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLWhhbWFzLWhvc3RhZ2VzLWlkZi1wcm90ZXN0LXRlbC1hdml2LW5ld3MtcGFsZXN0aW5lLXVzLWJpZGVuLWNlYXNlZmlyZS11btIBAA
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