Israel under pressure to negotiate after three hostages 'waving white flag' killed by IDF
Alon Shamriz, Samer Al-Talalka and Yotam Haim were killed in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, ITV News' Sejal Karia reports
Three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed by the IDF during a ground operation in Gaza
Protesters have filled the streets of Tel Aviv calling for Israel to return to the negotiating table to secure the release of remaining hostages in Gaza
International calls for a ceasefire have grown Israel has drawn international outrage and rare criticism from the US, its main ally, over the killing of civilians
UK foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has added to the criticism, arguing that 'too many civilians have been killed' as he called for a 'sustainable ceasefire'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest hostage talk could be resumed, but details remain scarce and major obstacles still remain in the way
Around 300 people have been sheltering in the complex of Gaza City's only Catholic church, with people inside saying they have come under Israeli sniper fire, which killed a mother and daughter
Israel has said it is "committed as ever" to its war against Hamas in Gaza, despite its forces mistakenly shooting dead three hostages who were shirtless and waving a white flag.
Alon Shamriz, 26, Samer Al-Talalka, 25, and Yotam Haim, 26, were killed on Friday in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shijaiyah, after Israeli troops incorrectly identified them as a threat.
The military is investigating the incident and believes they had either escaped their captors or been abandoned when they were shot.
It was Israel's first such acknowledgement of harming hostages in a war that it says is largely aimed at rescuing them.
On Sunday, the IDF released photos of the signs that the three men used to call for help, apparently using leftover food. One read "SOS" and the other, "Help, 3 hostages".
The killings have led to protests in the streets of Tel Aviv, with demonstrators calling on the Israeli government to get back onto the negotiating table to secure the release of remaining hostages.
More than 240 people had been taken captive by Hamas fighters when the Islamist group launched its October 7 attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people.
Israel has said the purpose of its subsequent attack on Gaza, which according to Palestinian authorities has killed over 18,700 people, is to eliminate Hamas, and to free hostages in Gaza.
However, anger is mounting in Israel over its government holding off from a second round of hostage negotiations, with demonstrators in Tel Aviv shouting: "Their time is running out! Bring them home now."
Questioning Israel's approach of maintaining its relentless onslaught on Gaza, Rubi Chen, father of 19-year-old hostage Itay Chen, said: “Put the best offer on the table to get the hostages home alive. We don't want them back in bags."
Scores of protesters set up tents outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday, saying they would stay until the government resumed hostage negotiations with Hamas.
“The hostages are experiencing hell and they are in mortal peril," said Raz Ben-Ami, one of the hostages released in the last exchange. “Israel must offer another hostage-release deal.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationwide address that the hostages' deaths “broke my heart, broke the entire nation’s heart,” but he indicated no change in Israel’s military campaign.
“We are as committed as ever to continue until the end, until we dismantle Hamas, until we return all our hostages,” he said.
“Along with all the people of Israel, I bow my head with deep sorrow and mourn the death of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped, among them are Yotam Haim and Samer Fouad Al-Talalka,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Anger over the killings is likely to increase pressure on the government to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more captives for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
During a week-long truce in November, Hamas and other militants in Gaza released more than 100 hostages, most of them Israelis, in return for 240 Palestinians prisoners held in Israel.
Efforts to restart negotiations mediated by Egypt and Qatar have since stalled, but on Saturday Mr Netanyahu appeared to suggest talks were underway to revive the process.
However, he insisted continued military force was necessary in order to give Israel leverage over Hamas.
"Without the military pressure, we wouldn’t have reached a framework to release 110 hostages, and only ongoing military pressure would lead to the release of all our hostages," he said.
"The instruction I give to our negotiating team is based on that pressure. And without it, we don’t have anything."
David Barnea, director of Israeli intelligence service Mossad, was expected to meet Qatar's prime minister in Europe at the end of the week to continue discussions, CNN reports. It is not clear if these talks have already taken place.
When asked during a news conference for more details about a potential second round of hostage talks, Mr Netanyahu said: "We have serious criticisms of Qatar," in an apparent reference to the Gulf-state's close ties with Hamas and Iran.
"But right now we are trying to complete the recovery of our hostages," he added.
How far these efforts will take either party remains to be seen, with senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan reiterating that there will be no further hostage releases until Israel halts its war and accepts the militant group's conditions for an exchange.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel would never accept such demands, having stressed towards the end of last month's ceasefire that the IDF would press on with its mission to eliminate Hamas as soon as the truce was over.
This suggests both sides are still at an impasse, but international pressure has been growing, with US President Joe Biden suggesting this week that Israel is losing international support due to "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza.
The UK's foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has added to these warnings, calling for a “sustainable” ceasefire, adding that “too many civilians have been killed” by Israel.
In an joint op-ed for the Sunday Times with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, the pair wrote: “Israel will not win this war if its operations destroy the prospect of peaceful co-existence with Palestinians.”
Israel could face pressure to scale back its military operation following US defence secretary Lloyd Austin's visit to the country.
Officials from Tel Aviv and Washington have spoken of a transition to more targeted strikes aimed at killing Hamas leaders and rescuing hostages, without saying when it would occur. So far Israel has rescued one hostage during an earlier stage of the conflict.
In southern Gaza, the Al Jazeera television network said an Israeli strike Friday in the city of Khan Younis killed cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and wounded its chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh.
The two were reporting at a school that had been hit by an earlier airstrike when a drone launched a second strike, the network said. Khan Younis has been the main target of Israel’s ground offensive in the south. Speaking from a hospital bed, Mr Dahdouh told the network that he managed to walk to an ambulance. But Abu Daqqa lay bleeding in the school and died hours later. An ambulance tried to reach the school to evacuate him but had to turn back because roads were blocked by the rubble of destroyed houses, it said.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted: 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists. Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told a General Assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document (their) crimes and inform the world, the journalists”. Israel's offensive has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
Some 300 people are taking shelter in Gaza City's only Catholic church surrounded by Israeli forces, with a mother and daughter reportedly killed by sniper fire on Saturday.
Layla Moran, the UK's first MP of Palestinian origin, told ITV News how she has family in Holy Family Church complex, and that people inside have run out of food and water.
"A tank has taken position outside the church and the building opposite has been taken. The people inside have died. " she wrote on Sunday afternoon on X.
"There are snipers at every window pointing into the church. Still shooting anyone emerging from buildings to use eg toilets. Still no food or water."
Misery in Gaza has been compounded by a prolonged communications blackout, which saw internet and telephone lines go down on Thursday.
This has hampered aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel's war against Gaza's ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Sullivan that it would take months to destroy Hamas, but he did not say whether his estimate referred to the current phase of heavy airstrikes and ground battles. "There is no contradiction between saying the fight is going to take months and also saying that different phases will take place at different times over those months, including the transition from the high-intensity operations to more targeted operations,” Mr Sullivan said Friday. Mr Sullivan also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss Gaza’s postwar future.
A senior US official said one idea being floated is to bring back Palestinian security forces driven from their jobs in Gaza by Hamas in its 2007 takeover.
Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there.
Mr Netanyahu has said he will not allow a postwar foothold for the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The US has said it eventually wants to see the West Bank and Gaza under a “revitalized Palestinian Authority" as a precursor to a Palestinian state – an idea soundly rejected by Mr Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood. Palestinian officials have said they will consider a postwar role in Gaza only in the context of concrete US-backed steps toward statehood. In the meeting, Mr Abbas called for an immediate cease-fire and ramped-up aid to Gaza, and emphasized that Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian state, according to a statement from his office. Mr Abbas, 88, is deeply unpopular, with a poll published Wednesday indicating close to 90% of Palestinians want him to resign.
Meanwhile, Palestinian support for Hamas has tripled in the West Bank, with a small uptick in Gaza, according to the poll. Still, a majority of Palestinians do not back Hamas, according to the survey.
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