Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Israeli military mistakenly killed three hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas during an incident which is "under review", a military spokesperson said on Friday.
The military said the hostages were killed during combat with militants in Gaza and expressed its condolences to the families while saying there would be "full transparency" in the investigation into the incident.
A statement from the military said that during an intense battle in Gaza it "identified three Israeli hostages as a threat". "As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed."
Earlier on Friday, the Israeli military said it had recovered the bodies of three Israelis - a civilian and two soldiers - who had been held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas.
... What?
I ... ok.
I had not heard that.
Well ok then, so ... they ... do not have or are not using Hostage Rescue Teams, and are just sending the standard IDF forces, not specialized units?
I do not even know what to say beyond 'That is completely insane.'
She was the only hostage to actually make it out of the exchange, I believe there was something like less than 10 others who were being held with her but she said in an interview that the rest were killed by the IDF. I'd assume that they haven't made the hostages a major priority because any of them that have been recovered have told the media that they were treated well considering the conditions. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231021-israel-settler-israel-forces-killed-hostages-not-hamas/
Wow again that is just fucking insane on so many levels.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, while obviously many fuck ups and a decent number of 'kill em all!' insane shit was directly perpetrated by US and Coalition forces...
They had fucking rules of engagement they had to follow, and the military actually prosecuted a good amount of violations of this.
An IDF tank firing a fucking tank round into a building, in an urban area full of civilians, where they knew the hostages were, and could have potentially killed many more non combatants if the building collapsed?
I am basically at a loss for words.
The most intense and intensely criticized fighting of the Iraq War 2 may be argued to have been Fallujah. While I think dropping leaflets everywhere telling civillians 'leave or we will probably kill you in a week' is uh, fucking bad,... at least the US Mil, like, you know, gave warning? And people were not literally penned in on all sides and actually /could/ leave?
They, the IDF, truly do not give a fuck. Even a hostage rescue mission apparently opens with what is likely a war crime, firing a tank shell into the building, in that context.
Someone pull up Edwin Star and email me a flask of bourbon, jesus fucking christ.
Also, Hamas was offering prisoner exchanges from day 1. Like that was the whole point of Oct 7. When they released Yochefed Lifschidtz because they didn't have the means to give her medical care, the IOF refused to take her back multiple times- and her saying she was treated basically well was why, during the later prisoner exchanges, they didn't allow most of them to speak to press.
The hostages are an extremely obvious pretext and the families of the hostages are reportedly furious about it
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Up until this point I had only had seen a few clips of Sam Seder basically summarizing the big picture... it is truly astounding when learning the details.