“Israeli” Army Mistakenly Killed Three Captives Held in Gaza

By Staff, Agencies

The “Israeli” army announced that it has killed three captives held by Hamas in Gaza after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat.

The military said on Friday that the captives were killed during combat with Palestinian groups in Gaza and expressed its condolences to the families while saying there would be “full transparency” in the investigation into the incident, which is “under review”.

“During combat in Shujayea, the [‘Israeli’ army] mistakenly identified three ‘Israeli hostages’ as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” the army said in a statement.

“The [‘Israeli’ army] began reviewing the incident immediately … Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all [‘Israeli’ army] troops in the field,” it added, expressing “deep remorse over the tragic incident”.

The army’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said “Israeli” troops found the captives and erroneously identified them as a threat. He said it was believed that the three had either fled their captors or been abandoned.