I’ve been asked why our soldiers killed those three hostages on Friday December 15th. So, as an appendix to what I posted yesterday this is how I answered that person’s question:
The « why » is coming out clearer with each report. Basically, the terrorists have been trying to lure Israeli soldiers into traps and ambushes by any trick they can think of.
For example, they set a booby trap in a tunnel with toys and a recording of a crying baby. They’ve written messages on walls, they’ve pretended to surrender only to try to blow up the soldiers who approach them. Several soldiers were killed near this very spot on a previous day as they unsuccessfully tried to rescue two other hostages from a tunnel during an intense fire fight. The intensity of the fighting here has driven all civilians away. Anything that moves is therefore perceived as a threat and when one soldier on patrol saw these guys his first reaction was to shout « terrorists! » and shoot at them. Another soldier with him also reflexively reacted to the shouted word and did the same. The officer in charge immediately halted their fire, but by this point two were dead and the third hostage, who was wounded, fled back into the building they’d come out of. Across the way at a distance, a sniper was positioned in a building with a view of the scene but he was too far away to hear the cease fire command. When the wounded third hostage reemerged he shot him dead.
The « why » has to do with lack of following instructions or the giving of vague instructions, or panic and fear on the part of the first soldier who started the whole chain of events. Hostages were believed to be held underground in the tunnels, not above ground. From now on, if anyone comes out of a building waving a white flag with hands in the air, that person must not be shot. They must be captured instead.
These have always been the rules, actually, but in the heat of battle the panicked soldier lost his head. That soldier is now being treated for the traumatic state he is in, blaming himself for everything that happened and beyond despair for the blood he shed.
He’s probably on suicide watch where he’s being treated. The down side of all this is that while we have learned a lesson about preventing this from happening again, the enemy has also learned that we will be vulnerable to terrorists luring soldiers into an ambush with a white-flag waving decoy posing as a hostage and catching our soldiers off guard. War is hell. Mistakes are made. Friendly fire has claimed several of our own soldiers.
Lessons are learned, by fighters on both sides. In the end we have three fresh graves but also new insight into where other hostages might come from above ground. No excuses will ever be sufficient, but again, war is hell.
© Aaron Leeper
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