The tragic event in which three captives were killed by IDF fire on Friday has triggered understandable public outrage, but if were to look beyond the event itself, it must echo a clear message: Every day that goes by endangers the lives of the captives.
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The event itself was a serious mishap and a blatant breach of the rules of engagement. The captives moved without shirts and waved a white cloth – that is, they took every possible step to ensure that they posed no threat.
Nevertheless, one of the fighters shouted that they were terrorists and opened fire at them. He hit two captives, and the third who fled to a nearby building was shot and killed despite shouting "help" and despite the battalion commander's order to cease fire.
This incident exposes operational questions on how far away one should open fire, and under what approval process, as well as the necessary distinction between a clear enemy combatant and a potential threat.
It also exposes ethical issues of reckless shooting at those who surrender, certainly when they are at a distance where they pose no danger to the forces. It also raises the issue of coordination and understanding regarding the captives, which requires appropriate guidelines, even if the scenario that materialized on Friday of captives wandering freely in the middle of the street seemed unlikely.
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, did well by making clear yesterday what was obvious: The IDF will not fire at those waving a white flag. This is important not only vis-à-vis the captives but in a broader view: vis-à-vis the world, which accuses Israel of war crimes and may see this incident as proof that Israel strikes Gaza civilians without any distinction.
Video: Netanyahu speaks about the war in Gaza / X/@Israelipm
Still, the chief of staff must ensure that the soldiers' fingers are not too trigger-happy. This is not an easy task, under non-trivial conditions, where Hamas makes every effort to harm the soldiers and set traps for them.
Those quick to pass judgment on the forces that erred should recall that three days earlier nine fighters were killed in the same neighborhood and that there were quite a few incidents of Hamas terrorists dressed in civilian clothes who tried to blow themselves up on the forces or lure fighters into traps to enable the abduction of soldiers.
The soldiers who killed the captives will have to live with the event forever. This is a terrible tragedy because, after 70 days of cruel captivity, the three were so close to freedom. It is unclear how they escaped captivity – whether their captors fled, were killed, or released them – and it is doubtful whether the answer to that will ever be known. But it was further proof that even in areas where the IDF operates extensively, there are still captives, who should at least be taken into account when choosing modes of action.
In particular, it is important to recall this in light of calls to increase airstrikes prior to ground operations. Returned captives have recounted that sometimes these attacks were carried out near them, and there may also have been captives killed from such air raids. The claim that the life of a captive is equal to the life of a soldier is misplaced in this context: The army's role is to protect the civilians in the country, certainly, after the sense that towns were forsaken on October 7.
The IDF is making tremendous efforts to try to reach the captives. Evidence of this is the return of five bodies in recent days. Some of them were killed during the abduction, and others were apparently killed or murdered shortly afterward. The conventional wisdom is that there are still dozens of bodies of captives in Gaza, but there is a larger number of living captives. Since so far only one captive has been released alive through a military operation (Ori Megidish), and 85 captives have been released through negotiations, it is worth wondering if Israel is indeed leaving no stone unturned in order to reach a new deal with Hamas.
The head of Mossad met with the the prime minister of Qatar in Europe over the weekend, in an attempt to launch a new dialogue on the issue. Senior officials assess that it would take at least a few days to determine whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is keen to finalize a new deal. Some in Israel believe that he is because that would ease the military pressure on him and give him some breathing room; some believe that he is not interested, because he knows that the captives are Israel's Achilles' Heel – and he is interested in pressing that soft spot as much as he can.
The defense establishment hopes that the military maneuver, especially in Khan Younis, will push Sinwar into a corner. This is a rather naive approach because nothing in Sinwar's nature points to that. The opposite is true: The Hamas leader knowingly sacrifices his people and his country, and he may also sacrifice the captives and certainly will not release them voluntarily.
Israel has defined the return of the captives as one of the two overarching goals of the war, alongside defeating Hamas. It must also walk the walk and do so with full transparency. In this context, calls that were heard (including from politicians) to avoid publicizing the details of the tragedy were very disturbing. Beyond the obtuseness inherent in the thought that in 2023 one can hide the truth, they taught that there are circles of government who believe that one should lie so that the public will believe that all is well.
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