'You will not hesitate, even if they're civilians'

Mother of hostage killed by IDF gunfire says troops were told to open fire on sight

Soldiers involved in the December 2023 killing of three Israelis in Gaza told Iris Haim they were operating under broad orders to ‘shoot to kill,’ leading to her son’s tragic death

When three Israeli hostages were killed in Gaza by Israel Defense Forces gunfire in December 2023, the military described it as a “tragic accident.” But in a recent interview, the mother of one of the hostages said the troops involved were given orders to shoot on sight, which ultimately resulted in her son’s death.

Speaking to Channel 13, Iris Haim, mother of Yotam, 28 — who was killed alongside Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samar Talalka, 25, during “intense fighting” in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood — recounted conversations she had with soldiers involved in the incident. She was interviewed for Channel 13’s investigative program HaMakor (The Source), which broadcast an hour-long documentary, “The truth behind the shooting of the hostages,” on Thursday.

“I heard this from every soldier who spoke to me… They received an unequivocal order: Everything you see — and you will not hesitate, even if they’re civilians — you shoot to kill,” she told the television station.

According to one of those soldiers, Talalka, an Arab hostage from the Bedouin town of Hura, had led the group of three in approaching Israeli forces.

“The moment you recognize an Arab face in Gaza, the first intuition is that these are Hamas terrorists trying to carry out an attack,” the soldier said in a recording published by the news outlet.

The soldiers then opened fire on the three, despite the fact that they were shirtless and one was waving a makeshift white flag.

Haim recounted a conversation with another soldier, in which he said he shot and wounded Yotam after Talalka and Shamriz had already been killed by gunfire from other troops, before his gun jammed. At that point another soldier shot and killed her son.

The soldier who spoke with Haim told her that he suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.

An Armored Corps officer who was at the scene claimed that the fatal round was fired after the commander of the Golani Brigade battalion responsible for the hostages’ deaths gave an order to halt fire.

Another officer present, who was in charge of delivering orders from the battalion commander to other troops in the area, said that the halt-fire order did not reach the soldier who killed Yotam, since he and the troops with him were in a closed room and wore earplugs due to the gunfire.

According to the officer’s retelling of events, the battalion commander called for a halt to fire after realizing that the three may have been hostages, and told Yotam, who had already been shot in his arm, to approach the troops. However, the officer said there was not enough time for the order to reach all forces in the area before Yotam was told to come forward.

“Everything happened in a matter of seconds,” the officer told Haim.

A reserve officer in the Golani battalion told Haim that “the instructions given to the soldiers were very clear,” saying troops were told to shoot “even if it’s an old man,” since “an old man knows how to detonate himself with a bomb.”

When concerns were raised within the IDF about the protocol, the officer claimed that military command said “the situation is such that you cannot differentiate” between terror operatives and hostages.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, an IDF probe found that five days before the three hostages were killed, troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit operating in Shejaiya raided several buildings to locate Hamas gunmen and weapons. In one building that the troops breached, a dog of the Oketz canine unit was sent in, after which a gun battle broke out between Hamas operatives and Golani soldiers.

Amid the fighting, Golani commanders heard shouting of “Help” and “Hostages” in Hebrew from the building. The troops reported the shouting, but commanders believed it was an attempt by Hamas to lure them into an ambush.

According to recordings of high-ranking IDF officers published by Channel 13, the military had encountered similar incidents in the past, in which Hamas operatives tried to lure troops into booby-trapped buildings by posing as hostages calling for help.

Instead of investigating further, the IDF directed an attack helicopter and tanks to strike the building. In the strikes, at least five Hamas operatives were believed to have been killed, but the hostages survived, having hidden under a staircase, the network reported.

Only on December 18, when troops scanned the building where the gun battle had taken place and recovered the camera on the Oketz dog, did the military find that it had recorded the three hostages’ cries for help. The three were not seen in the video, only heard.

Addressing why the military did not assess the camera footage sooner, IDF intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Gur Amibar was heard saying in a recording published by Channel 13, “I already know there are terrorists in the house. So there was no need to unpack [the footage] in real time.”

Speaking to Amibar in a recorded conversation, Haim posed the question of how troops operating in Gaza were meant to identify hostages without being provided photos.

“The Israeli government says the most important thing is to bring the hostages back,” she said. “There are no photos for the soldiers of the hostages. So how did they know what they were looking for?”

Amibar could be heard responding, “Everything you say is correct.”

Haim has in the past defended Israel’s security establishment and the soldiers involved in the incident, telling Channel 12 days after her son was killed, “I wasn’t angry at the IDF for even a minute.”

After hearing that soldiers involved in the incident were experiencing low morale, she also recorded a message for the troops, saying, “I know that everything that happened is absolutely not your fault… Don’t hesitate for a second if you see a terrorist.”