Israel confirms mistakenly killing three Hamas hostages while bombing its tunnels

The Israeli army confirmed this Sunday “with high probability” that Three Hamas hostageswhose bodies were found in a tunnel in northern Gaza in mid-December, killed in Israeli airstrike perpetrated in November against the place where they were located.

These are the conclusions announced today by the IDF to the relatives of Ron Sherman and Nik Beizerboth aged 19, already Elia Toledano28; all three were reportedly killed in Gaza after Israel attacked the tunnel complex where they were being held hostage in Jabalia in order to kill a Hamas commander. The conclusion of his death “is based on the location of the bodies in relation to the impact of the attack, the course of the attack, intelligence findings, the results of pathology reports as well as the determination of the Institute of Forensic Medicine,” a military statement said.

“The investigation shows that the three hostages were being held in the tunnel complex from which (Hamas commander Ahmed) Ghandour was operating. At the time of the attack, we had no information about the presence of hostages,” the text explains.

Their deaths are added to those of three other captives. fatally shot “by mistake” by Israeli troops in mid-December in Shujaiya, a suburb of Gaza City, while they were not wearing shirts and were carrying a white flag, a military spokesman revealed at the time.

Two days ago, during a trip of international media involved in the Israeli army to Rafah, south of Gaza, where he was present EFEIsraeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi assured that the troops are to examine the tunnel network “with the greatest care” found in Rafah in order not to make the mistakes of the past.

It was there, in a dead-end tunnel in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, that Israel found the bodies of six other hostages on September 1, according to forensic expertise. “executed” at point-blank range by Hamas just 24 hours before they were accidentally discovered by Israeli troops.

Hamas’s military wing confirmed a day later that after Israel’s June rescue operation in which it successfully smuggled four captives out of the Gaza Strip alive (killing more than 200 Gazans), those guarding the hostages had “received new instructions” on what to do if troops approached.