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TEL AVIV, Israel, 18 Dec (AP) \u2014 Israelis were left stunned and speechless when three hostages held by Hamas were killed by Israeli forces in the middle of an active war zone after they waved a white flag and screamed out in Hebrew to show they did not pose a threat.<\/p>\n
For some, the incident was a shocking example of the ugliness of war, where a complex and dangerous battlefield is safe for no one. But for critics, the incident underscores what they say is the excessively violent conduct of Israel\u2019s security apparatus against Palestinians. Except in this case, it cut short the lives of three Israelis trying desperately to save themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking but it\u2019s not surprising,\u201d said Roy Yellin, director of public outreach with the Israeli human rights group B\u2019Tselem. \u201cWe have documented over the years countless incidents of people who clearly surrendered and who were still shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yellin said the killings violated basic military ethics and international law that prohibit shooting at people trying to surrender, whether combatants or not. But he said it was part of a long trend of largely unpunished excessive force that in recent weeks has ensnared Israelis themselves.<\/p>\n
According to a military official, the three hostages, all men in their 20s, emerged from a building close to Israeli soldiers\u2019 positions in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, where troops have been battling Hamas militants in intense combat.<\/p>\n
They waved a white flag and were shirtless, possibly trying to signal they posed no threat. Two were killed immediately, and the third ran back into the building screaming for help in Hebrew. The commander issued an order to cease fire, but another burst of gunfire killed the third man, the official said.<\/p>\n
The army\u2019s chief, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said hostages \u201cdid everything possible\u201d to make it clear they did not pose a threat, but that the soldiers acted \u201cduring combat and under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Halevi reviewed the rules of engagement with troops, saying the prohibition against opening fire on those who surrender must also apply to Palestinians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see two people who do not threaten you, who don\u2019t have weapons, who have their hands up and are not wearing shirts, take two seconds,\u201d he said in comments broadcast on Israeli TV. \u201cAnd I want to tell you something that is no less important: if these are two Gazans with a white flag who want to surrender, will we shoot them? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That is not the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the killings \u201cbroke my heart, broke the entire nation\u2019s heart,\u201d but he indicated no change in Israel\u2019s intensive military campaign. With popular opinion firmly behind the military effort, the hostages\u2019 deaths weren\u2019t likely to prompt a change in the public mood.<\/p>\n
Israel says a number of hostages have died in Hamas captivity. But the deaths of the three hostages struck a nerve because they were killed by the forces trying to rescue them.<\/p>\n
Roughly 129 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military, and their plight has gripped the nation, which sees their captivity as the embodiment of the security failure surrounding Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. The hostages\u2019 deaths prompted hundreds of demonstrators to take to the streets in anger.<\/p>\n
It also came days after another incident raised questions about Israel\u2019s open-fire rules. After Hamas militants shot at a busy Jerusalem bus stop, an Israeli man who had rushed to confront the attackers was gunned down by an Israeli soldier, even though he had raised his hands, knelt on the ground and flung open his shirt to indicate he wasn\u2019t a threat. The military has launched an investigation.<\/p>\n
Critics see a direct link between a long list of shooting deaths of Palestinians \u2013 from the killing of 32-year-old autistic man Eyad Hallaq, to the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and many more over the years \u2013 to the incidents that led to the deaths of Israelis.<\/p>\n
Most recently, B\u2019Tselem accused the army of carrying out a pair of \u201cillegal executions\u201d after releasing video footage that appeared to show Israeli troops killing two Palestinian men \u2014 one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed \u2014 during a military raid in the occupied West Bank. Military police are investigating, but rights groups say such incidents rarely lead to punitive measures.<\/p>\n
Critics say the hostages incident reflects the military\u2019s conduct toward civilians in Gaza. More than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, of whom about two-thirds are said to be women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.<\/p>\n
Avner Gvaryahu, who heads Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group that documents testimonies of former Israeli soldiers, said soldier accounts from previous military engagements in the Gaza Strip showed that once an area was deemed by the military to be cleared of civilians, they were instructed to \u201cshoot everything that moves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe army said this happened in violation of the rules of engagement. I\u2019m skeptical of that, based on what we know of previous operations in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many Palestinians were shot at like this?\u201d<\/p>\n
The military says it does what it can to protect civilians, but says it faces a complex arena where Hamas embeds itself in densely populated civilian areas. Palestinians on several occasions have said Israeli soldiers opened fire in Gaza as civilians tried to flee to safety.<\/p>\n
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank, disputed the comparisons between the hostage deaths to the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank or the killing of the Israeli civilian in Jerusalem. He said each case needed to be seen on its own, rather than as part of a broader trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t have happened but we are in a war and it\u2019s not a sterile environment,\u201d said Michael, who is a former senior official at Israel\u2019s Ministry for Strategic Affairs. \u201cWe need to understand the context.\u201d<\/p>\n
The killing of Israeli civilians in recent weeks has prompted a reckoning for some Israelis. Nahum Barnea, a leading commentator, wrote in Yediot Ahronot that the hostage incident was a crime and could not be passed over \u201cas if it were nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Caspit, writing in the daily Maariv, said the rise of Israel\u2019s far-right has helped create an environment that makes it easier for forces to open fire.<\/p>\n
He also highlighted a common sentiment among Israel\u2019s hard-line right wing that there are no noncombatants in Gaza. That has fueled concerns among critics that Israeli forces are not being discriminate in their combat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent years our finger has become too light on the trigger. The recent events have made it even lighter,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere are noncombatants in Gaza, and three of them were killed this weekend by our own soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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