Mom sends forgiveness, love and support to Israeli soldiers who mistakenly killed hostage son
The mother of one of three hostages accidentally shot dead by Israeli troops delivered an astonishing message of love and forgiveness to the unit that killed him — while urging them to keep up the fight to wipe out Hamas.
Iris Haim sent a heartfelt message Wednesday to the Bislamach Brigade’s 17th Battalion, whose soldiers mistook her 28-year-old son Yotam along with Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26, for terrorists.
“I am Yotam’s mother. I wanted to tell you that I love you very much, and I hug you here from afar,” the grieving mom said, according to the Times of Israel.
“I know that everything that happened is absolutely not your fault, and nobody’s fault except that of Hamas, may their name be wiped out and their memory erased from the Earth,” Haim said in a recorded message.
“I want you to look after yourselves and to think all the time that you are doing the best thing in the world, the best thing that could happen, that could help us.
“Because all the people of Israel and all of us need you healthy,” she continued.
Haim urged the soldiers to continue acting decisively if they believed they faced terrorists.
“Don’t think that you killed a hostage deliberately. You have to look after yourselves because only that way can you look after us,” she said.
Haim also extended an invitation to the young men.
“At the first opportunity, you are invited to come to us, whoever wants to. And we want to see you with our own eyes and hug you and tell you that what you did — however hard it is to say this, and sad — it was apparently the right thing in that moment,” Haim said.
She stressed that no one would judge the soldiers for their actions or be angry with them.
“Not me and not my husband, Raviv. Not my daughter Noya. And not Yotam, may his memory be blessed. And not Tuval, Yotam’s brother.
“We love you very much. And that is all,” she said in conclusion.
The mom’s message came as the Israel Defense Forces revealed that it had recovered video from a military dog’s camera, in which one of the hostages could be heard shouting for help five days before their deaths.
The GoPro camera on the dog from the elite Oketz unit continued to function even after the animal was killed and recorded the voice of a hostage, apparently Shamriz, yelling, “Help!”
The recording was only discovered on Dec. 18, three days after the men were killed, when the IDF recovered the dog’s body.
In the heat of battle, soldiers may have heard Hebrew being shouted but assumed it was a ruse by the terrorists, the IDF has found.
Previously, the IDF said the three men approached soldiers shirtless, waving a white banner and with their hands up, but the troops shot them because they believed they were terrorists.
The hostages had also left a sign written with leftover food reading “SOS” and “3 hostages. Help” on a building, but soldiers also believed it was a Hamas trick.
The probe is focusing on Yotam’s death, which was found to be particularly egregious because he managed to flee back into a building after he was shot along with the two other hostages, the news outlet reported, citing the Kan public broadcaster.
The 17th Battalion commander reportedly ordered his troops to hold their fire, but one of them proceeded to kill Yotam when he emerged from the building again.
In the aftermath of the incident, the IDF sent new protocols to ground troops for the possibility of more hostages managing to flee captivity.
