Addressing the soldiers of the 99th Division in the Gaza Strip, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi expressed optimism, stating, “Hopefully we will have another opportunity for hostages to come to us and we will do the right thing.”
This comes in the aftermath of an unfortunate incident where soldiers mistakenly shot and killed three hostages in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood.
Halevi acknowledged the gravity of the incident, stating, “I tell you in a very simple way, the incident is very difficult and painful, and no one will come and say otherwise.”
Highlighting the avoidability of the situation, he remarked, “I’m telling you that this is an incident that very easily could have not happened.”
“…We have set three goals, to dismantle Hamas, to restore security to the residents … and the third mission is to recover the hostages,” Halevi says.
“You see two people, they have their hands up and no shirts, take two seconds,” he says to the soldiers, referring to Friday’s tragic incident, where all three hostages were shirtless and one was waving a white flag.
“And I want to tell you something no less important, what if it is two Gazans with a white flag who come out to surrender, do we shoot at them? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
“Even those who fought and now put down their weapons and raise their hands, we capture them, we don’t shoot them. We extract a lot of intelligence from the prisoners we have, we have over a thousand already. We don’t shoot them because the IDF doesn’t shoot a person who raises his hands. This is a strength, not a weakness.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
