Investigation Reveals Tragic Mistakes Leading To Hostage Yotam Haim’s Death From IDF Fire

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Two years after the incident in Shuja’iyya in which the hostages Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samer Talalka were killed by IDF forces after they had escaped their captors, new testimonies have reached the families of the victims, presenting a troubling picture of how the incident was handled on the ground.

According to the newly revealed information, the officer commanding the scene was Battalion Commander Lt. Col. D. Initially, Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka were mistakenly shot, while Yotam Haim managed to escape, wounded, toward a nearby building, according to a report by Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio).

About fifteen minutes later, while Yotam, who was wounded in the hand, was calling out in Hebrew, the battalion commander began managing the event. According to testimony from an officer who was present at the scene, he approached the battalion commander and said: “I think it’s one of ours. He’s speaking fluent Hebrew.”

Subsequently, the battalion commander shouted the command “Cease fire”, along with another order: “ZAMBIA”—a command meaning a complete halt to fire and a demand for total silence in the area. Despite this, a tank present at the scene did not shut down its engine and continued to generate heavy noise. A tank crew member later testified:
“We didn’t hear the order.”

Investigations revealed that the noise from the tank caused some of the fighters not to hear the instructions that were issued. Although Lt. Col. D. noticed that the engine had not been turned off and that the orders were not being fully carried out, he chose to continue managing the incident amid the noise, without ensuring that the instructions were properly conveyed and implemented by all forces at the scene.

Under these conditions, and despite the lack of clarity, the battalion commander called out to Yotam Haim: “Come toward me.”

Yotam ran toward the soldiers, and two of them shot him dead.

The family of Yotam Haim, of blessed memory, says that after the incident the battalion commander did not contact them, did not apologize, and did not request a meeting. Only a year and a half later, as part of the presentation of the IDF’s supplemental investigation findings, was a meeting held.

In light of the decision by the Commander of the Ground Forces to promote Lt. Col. D., the family is demanding that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir halt his appointment as Operations Officer of the Gaza Division.