Camera footage obtained from an IDF dog shows how Golani Brigade infantrymen killed terrorists holding three Israeli hostages, allowing them to escape. Five days later, the escaped hostages were mistaken for terrorists and killed by Israeli troops.
The soldiers did not know the terrorists they were fighting in Gaza City’s Shejaia neighborhood on Dec. 10 were holding the hostages. The military K-9 was killed in the clashes but the camera the animal was wearing continued to film, eventually capturing the moment that the hostages escaped after seeing that their Hamas guards were killed.
The camera footage was downloaded on Dec. 18 and reviewed by the IDF.
Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 25, and Alon Shamriz, 26, were mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers on Dec. 15. They had been kidnapped along with more than 200 others during the Hamas terror assault on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.
The camera also recorded one of the hostages yelling for help. According to the IDF probe, the Golani soldiers heard the cries but believed it was a Hamas trick to lure them into an ambush. The escaped captives also left signs in another building in Hebrew reading “SOS” and “3 hostages,” but soldiers believed that it was booby-trapped.
“Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the death of three of our hostages,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Dec. 16. “This is an unbearable tragedy and all of Israel is grieving their loss this evening. My heart goes out to the bereaved families at this difficult time.”
