The three hostages, killed by mistake by the Israeli army in Gaza, they had raised a stick with a piece of white cloth, a rudimentary way of indicating the white flag. The IDF opened an investigation but the details of the death have made an event that has shocked and saddened Israel to the core even more painful. A tragedy that is putting even more pressure on the government of Benyamin Netanyahu, also criticized for not having announced the killing of the 3 kidnapped men, to reopen negotiations for a new exchange of hostages. For the families of the hostages, time is up: «We are only recovering bodies. We want to restart negotiations alongside the fighting”, they ask at today's rally where they symbolically show an hourglass.
In the evening the prime minister stated on TV that “the war will continue until the destruction of Hamas”, even if the death of the 3 hostages has “broken my heart and that of the nation”. Netanyahu then reiterated that after the war Gaza will be demilitarized and placed under Israeli security control. And that he will not allow the PNA to govern it.
Every day that passes therefore brings new pain to the relatives of the kidnapped: yesterday the death of another Israeli hostage in captivity in Gaza was announced: Inbar Haiman, 27 years old, kidnapped at the Reim music festival on 7 October. To give an internal signal, Mossad chief David Barnea flew to Oslo where he met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. At stake is the restart of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas – with the contribution of Egypt and the USA – for an exchange of the approximately 130 hostages remaining in the Strip with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. An exchange that would be technically impossible without, as analysts point out, a concomitant truce of arms.
Based on the outcome of the meeting, the War Cabinet will decide how and whether to continue the talks. Barnea, as far as we know, has already seen Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet Director (Internal Security) Ronen Bar and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in a meeting. There was no hesitation, however, on the part of the families of the hostages who took to the streets in Tel Aviv in front of the Ministry of Defense, with thousands of other people. «One hundred and twenty-nine coffins – they said, criticizing the War Cabinet again for not having received them – do not represent a victory. The tragic death of the hostages in Gaza requires immediate action: do everything to release all remaining hostages alive.”
Into this painful scenario, Hamas insinuates itself. Abu Obaida, spokesperson for the al Qassam Brigades, reiterated that “the Zionist army knows very well our conditions for releasing them, since none of them will be released until our conditions are met.”
In the reconstruction of the dynamics that led to the killing of Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Fuad El-Talalka, it became known that one of the soldiers, deployed on a building in front of the one where the event occurred, «felt threatened » despite the hostages waving a white cloth and he shot towards the group. “Two hostages were hit and fell to the ground, while the third – he added – managed to escape into a nearby building.” As the soldiers approached the building, “they began to hear shouts in Hebrew asking for their help.” The soldiers thought that “he was a member of Hamas who was trying to lure them (trapped, ed.), they entered the building and killed the hostage”.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi admitted that the soldiers “did not follow the rules of engagement”: “It is forbidden to shoot those who raise a white flag and ask to surrender”, he clarified.
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on Gaza show no signs of slowing down. On the ground, the Israeli army continues to press in the south and north of the Strip and the Palestinian agency Wafa reported an air attack where at least 14 people were killed, while “dozens of other people, including children and women, were killed and wounds in Jabalya.” Tension also remains high in northern Israel on the border with Lebanon, from where rockets continue to arrive which killed a reservist and triggered the armed response of the Jewish state. In the West Bank, 2 Palestinians were killed by Israel.
The attacks by the Houthi rebels, supported by Iran in Yemen, on ships in the Red Sea threaten to change the ways of international trade: the French company Cma CGM and the largest shipping group in the world, MSC, have announced that they will stop using the Suez Canal, after an attack on one of their ships, and will divert their ships through the Cape of Good Hope.
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Al Jazeera turns to CPI for killing cameraman
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