The hostages, all of whom were civilians, probably had either escaped or were abandoned by their captors before they tried to make their way toward an Israel Defense Forces position in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya on Friday, according to the official, who declined to be named in line with the rules of the briefing.
They emerged “tens of meters” from where Israeli troops were stationed, he said. “They are all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it,” the official explained, adding that a single soldier “felt threatened” and opened fire.
The deaths underscore the perilous risks for civilians in Gaza, including Palestinian residents and the more than 100 hostages believed to be still alive inside the territory.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, and others have called on Israel to scale back its military operations in Gaza over fears of widespread harm to civilians. The offensive has killed more than 18,700 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Some Israelis have also expressed concern that the campaign — including air and ground assaults — could endanger the hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups, as the whereabouts of many, if not all, of the captives remain unknown.
The dead hostages were identified by the IDF as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz of Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Samer Al-Talalka of Kibbutz Nir Am — all kidnapped on Oct. 7 when Hamas led a shock attack inside Israel, killing at least 1,200 people.
The IDF said it “expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident an “unbearable tragedy.”
The triple killing sparked an outpouring of anger among families of the hostages, with protesters gathering in Tel Aviv on Friday night. Haim Rubinstein, a spokesman for the hostages’ families, said members of Israel’s war cabinet had not spoken to them since the shooting of the three Israelis, the Times of Israel reported Saturday.
“Despite the heavy disaster, no one from the war cabinet has spoken to the families, no one has explained how to prevent the next disaster, no one,” he said.
Two of the hostages were killed immediately when the soldier opened fire Friday, the military official said, while one was injured and ran inside a building. As soldiers entered it, “a cry for help” was heard in Hebrew and the battalion commander issued an order to cease fire, the official said. But there was “another burst of fire” and the third hostage was killed.
“This was against our rules of engagement,” the official said, adding that there is a preliminary investigation going on at the “highest level” and that copies of the rules of engagement are being redistributed among IDF troops.
The military did not respond to a request for details of the rules of engagement.
On Saturday, an Al Jazeera journalist who was wounded in a drone strike that also killed his cameraman said the Israeli military had approved their trip to the site that was subsequently struck in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Speaking live on the network, Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh said he and his cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, had traveled with civil defense rescuers on Friday to visit a school that had come under attack. Still wearing bandages over his wounds, Dahdouh said that once their position was hit, he could hear Abu Daqqa screaming but could not help him because of his own injuries and returned to the ambulance to raise the alarm.
He was then taken to the Nasser Hospital in central Khan Younis, Dahdouh said. Al Jazeera on Friday blamed the casualties on an Israeli drone strike and said IDF troops prevented rescuers from reaching Abu Daqqa, who was “left to bleed to death for over five hours,” the network said.
The Qatar-based channel said it “holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families” — a charge the IDF denied.
“The IDF takes all operationally feasible measures to protect both civilians and journalists. The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” it said in a statement Saturday.
Pietsch reported from Washington. Victoria Bisset in London, Andrew Jeong in Seoul, Miriam Berger in Jerusalem and Itay Stern in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
