Afimag.com –
The Israeli military, on December 15, 2023, said it had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages during a ground operation in Gaza.
This was disclosed by the military’s chief spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, who admitted that Israeli troops mistakenly recognized the hostages as a threat and pulled the trigger on them.
He stated that it was not clear if the captives had escaped or had been abandoned. Their fatalities occurred in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, which has seen brutal fighting between Israel’s soldiers and Hamas terrorists.
It was learnt that an Israeli attack killed one of their cameramen, Samer Abudaqa, on Friday while he was filming the aftermath of an airstrike on a school.
Also, the Israel Defense Forces explained that its soldiers had recovered the bodies of two soldiers and one civilian hostage taken in the Hamas terror attack on October 7.
During a visit to Israel, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington was urging Israel to use more precise targeting of Hamas leaders in Gaza, rather than widespread bombing and ground operations.
“There will be a transition to another phase of this war, one that is focused in more precise ways on targeting the leadership and on intelligence-driven operations,” he told reporters Friday following two days of meetings with Israeli officials.
Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant told sullivan on Thursday that it would take “more than several months” to destroy Hamas, which he said has been building its infrastructure “under the ground and above the ground” in Gaza for more than a decade.
Sullivan declined to answer when asked Friday whether the U.S. would hold back military aid if Israel did not reduce civilian casualties, saying the best way to reach an agreement was in private discussions.
Sullivan met with Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President on Friday, Abbas called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and increased aid for the enclave.
The World Health Organization said more needed to be done to ensure that medical supplies reached hospitals in dire need across the enclave.
