Leaked audio captures Israeli hostages pleading for their lives before IDF soldiers mistakenly killed them
Harrowing audio has emerged of Israeli hostages pleading for their lives before they were killed by Israeli troops who mistook them for Hamas terrorists.
Israeli captives Alon Shamriz, 26, Yotam Haim, 28, and Samer Talalka, 22, were killed by friendly fire on Dec. 15, when an Israel Defense Forces unit operating in Gaza opened fire after the captives managed to escape.
In leaked audio posted by Israel’s Kan 11 news on Sunday, Shamriz and Haim can be heard yelling, “Save us!” and “We’re hostages!”
Several gunshots are then heard in the audio, which was obtained from a camera attached to a dog belonging to the IDF’s elite Oketz unit, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The canine was gunned down by the terrorists who were holding the three men, but the camera continued to record the tragic incident.
Shamriz’s brother revealed that the audio was leaked before it was played for the grieving family.
“My mother left because she knew she would not be able to stand it,” Yonatan Shamriz wrote on X. “I listened. My tears flowed and my blood froze for several minutes.
“I thought this was behind us … no one has to listen to this,” he continued. “And here the IDF is inflicting psychological terror on us by Hamas. And now it’s out to the world … long live the State of Israel.”
The leak emerged a day after the Israeli military announced that it would not recognize Alon as a fallen soldier because he was not on active or reserve duty when he was killed, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The military previously revealed that the video captured one of the hostages shouting for help five days before their deaths. The recording was discovered Dec. 18, three days after the men were killed.
The IDF said that in the heat of battle, the troops may have heard Hebrew being shouted but assumed it was a ruse by the terrorists.
The military previously said the 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 trick.
In the aftermath of the hostage killings, Israel’s military issued new protocols to ground troops for the possibility of more hostages managing to flee captivity.
Haim’s mother, Iris, later sent a heartfelt message to the Bislamach Brigade’s 17th Battalion, whose soldiers were involved in the tragic shooting.
“I am Yotam’s mother. I wanted to tell you that I love you very much, and I hug you here from afar,” she said in a recorded message.
“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,” she said.
“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,” she added.
