Three hostages, presumed to have escaped or been abandoned by Hamas, had a white flag with them when they were killed Friday.
Three Israeli hostages were in Gaza by Israeli forces.
The hostages were shirtless and one of them was holding up a white flag, according to an initial inquiry into the incident, a military official has said.
The hostages had apparently escaped and were trying to signal to the Israeli troops who they were. A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces in the area of Shujayea, the official added.
“They’re all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they’re terrorists, they [forces] open fire, two are killed immediately,” said the military official.
The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew.
Stories begin to differ at this point. According to one story, the IDF commander ordered a ceasefire upon hearing the hostage calling out in Hebrew. According to another story, IDF soldiers entered the building and found the hostage dead, killed perhaps from a second round of fire that occurred after the ceasefire command, or perhaps dead from the initial gunfire. According to a third telling, the IDF forces entered the building, hunted the hostage down and killed him.
According to the IDF, it was when IDF soldiers noted that one of the dead “looked Western” that they realized they had killed Israeli hostages, inadvertently making clear the racial element to the killings.
“This was against our rules of engagement,” said an IDF spokesperson.
Israeli war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz said he was “heartbroken”.