IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi on Saturday responded to the tragic disaster in which three hostages were shot and killed after being mistakenly identified as terrorists.
"The incident in which IDF soldiers accidentally killed Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samer Talalka, may their memories be blessed, is a painful and difficult incident," Halevi said. "Three hostages, who survived 70 days of horrors, moved in the direction of IDF soldiers and were killed by our forces' fire."
"There is nothing that IDF soldiers and commanders in Gaza want more than to rescue hostages alive. In this, we did not succeed in this case. We feel the great pain of the families, due to the deaths of the hostages. The IDF, and I as its commander, are responsible for what has happened, and we will do everything in order to prevent such incidents from happening during the rest of the fighting."
"I am trying to get into the head of the soldier in Shejaiya, after days of tough fighting, clashes from short range, meetings with terrorists wearing civilian clothes who are coming in various fraudulent ways. He must be tense and alert to every threat.
"The decision in a split second may cost in life or death. I think that the three hostages did everything so that we would understand - they moved without shirts so that we would not suspect an explosive device on their bodies, and they held a white cloth so that we would understand.
"The fire towards the hostages was carried out in contradiction to the open fire rules. You are not allowed to fire on someone who has raised a white flag and requests to surrender. But the fire was carried out during fighting and in tense conditions."
He continued, "We completed the initial investigation of the event in a quick and immediate fashion, such that it will allow us to learn lessons while fighting and pass them on to our soldiers on the ground. We updated the families with the difficult findings and we published them in a transparent fashion for the public. It could be that there will be additional incidents of hostages escaping or being abandoned during the fighting, and the obligation and responsibility to rescue them alive falls on us."
"The fighting is what brought us the opportunities to bring back the hostages. Our soldiers are fighting for seventy days in Gaza and on the other fronts, with courage and determination to protect our homes. In one second, the complexity of our justified war in Gaza has been expressed. We went out to fight in order to dismantle the enemy across the border, and bring the hostages home. Without determined fighting, we will not be able to bring back the hostages and we will not be able to bring security back to the towns. We must continue fighting with courage, without allowing our focus to drift away from its goals."