Really horrifying updates on the tragic story of the three Israeli hostages, who were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops. We now find out that they were apparently holding a stick with a white piece of cloth, and shouted help in Hebrew before they were shot. [00:00:16] With all this information coming from the IDF, the victims have been identified. Yotam Haim, Semir Talka, and Alan Shamriz, all taken back on October 7, experienced almost certainly absolutely horrific treatment, [00:00:33] and then eventually abandoned. Left desperately in need of help, and then, unfortunately, and tragically killed by those who should have been there to save them. It is, by the way, the first time that the IDF has actually acknowledged their role [00:00:48] in accidentally killing hostages. Although Hamas has previously said that hostages have been killed during the bombardment in Gaza, and is almost certainly the case in even more cases than that. >> Speaker 2: But apparently they, according to IDF spokespeople, were able to either escape, or were abandoned, and [00:01:06] apparently they were walking together without shirts. According to the IDF, it appeared that the three men were aware that they might be recognized by soldiers as Hamas militants. And therefore they took steps to try to make clear that they were hostages. Like waving the white cloth. [00:01:22] Two of them were apparently shot by a sniper at a distance. The third managed to escape into a building, fleeing IDF forces. When soldiers came close to the building, the hostage shouted help in Hebrew. A battalion commander told the soldiers to hold their fire, but [00:01:38] some of them shot at the hostage and killed him. By the way apparently a couple days earlier, in that area, IDF officials had found the words SOS, and help three hostages written on the walls in the area where they would later be killed. IDF officials said the assessment was that this was a deception attempt by Hamas. [00:01:58] So those hostages managed to escape after experiencing utter horrors, and then just desperate to be rescued, but fearful of what might happen. Took multiple precautions to try to save their own lives. And they were killed, not even all in one attack, but one survived. [00:02:16] Seeing the two people that he was with be killed, by their own side. Fleeing, desperately hoping that he would be saved, and was still gunned down again, despite literally waving a white flag. Francesca, what do you make of this? >> Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's completely devastating, and [00:02:33] I think it clues you into the way the IDF operates. We are being told that the IDF takes pains, to avoid civilian casualties, especially people who are unarmed, right? Shouting in Hebrew, I'm sorry, the American police might like a word, right? [00:02:51] This is the kind of stuff you see here. I'm sorry, how have they not been told, or trained that there could be hostages in the area? They're shouting in Hebrew, you think it's a trap? You think a Hamas fighter, trained in Hebrew, which they don't speak, [00:03:11] has an impeccable Hebrew accent, screaming help, without a shirt, and a white flag, and you snipe them to death, wild story. And it clues you into how little the IDF cares about human life, including the lives of Israeli hostages. [00:03:29] Yeah, and look, even if you want to just talk about outside this particular case, this is the situation that has been created with the strategy, by the Israeli military as been prosecuted. That on the one hand, maybe hostages are being blown to pieces, [00:03:44] crushed in buildings that are being bombed. It's almost certainly the case, and is horrible to even think about. But then, even with the free movement of soldiers, they can't be saved when they are either abandoned, or heroically free themselves from their captivity. [00:04:02] Just absolutely, I cannot imagine what the families, and friends of those hostages must be thinking right now. All they had done for months now, is desperately hope that their loved one could be returned to them. And now to find out that not only did they die, but in this particular, [00:04:19] almost unthinkable way. And by the way, I wanna remind everyone, I'm sure sometime this week we'll be talking about new updated numbers, for those civilians who've been killed in Gaza. But there was one particular story that I saw in the New York Times, [00:04:35] of one particular clan in Gaza that has lost more than 100 members. An extended family unit, effectively, that has lost dozens of members. [00:04:50] I literally do not know what to say, in light of that. The horror that is being. That's not in the past. We're not just looking back on what has happened. It is still happening. Literally, as we broadcast, bombs are being dropped, people are being shot, [00:05:06] people are fleeing their homes. If there's anyone left to flee their homes, since more than 90% already have had to. It's just our job to follow things like this. And yet it reaches a point where literally nothing can prepare you, for the cosmic scale of the human horrors that are playing out right now. [00:05:25] >> Speaker 1: Absolutely. >> [CROSSTALK] Francesca. >> Speaker 3: Just don't turn away, and keep calling, I know is taking their recess. Let's call, leave messages, write letters. The thing we can do for Gazins, is not forget them, and to continue to protest. [MUSIC]