The Israeli military announced Friday that soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip killed three Israeli hostages “misidentified” as a “threat.”
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“During fighting in Choujaiya (north), the army mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the soldiers opened fire in their direction and they were killed,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on television.
The victims are Yotam Haïm and Samer al-Talalka, both kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am during the deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, said an army statement.
The family of the third hostage killed did not want his identity made public.
Their bodies were repatriated to Israel.
The army emphasizes that they died “in an active combat zone” in which its soldiers have been waging “a continuous battle for several days” against Hamas fighters.
She expressed her “deep regrets” to the families of the victims, adding that “her mission is to locate the missing and bring the hostages home.”