Tel Aviv (AFP) – An Israeli soldier mistakenly killed hostages who had escaped from Hamas on 15 December, Israel’s army says, despite one of them apparently waving a white flag. “He was mistaken, he shot by error,” Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari tells a briefing. About 250 people were taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, which left around 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Israel then launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement that has killed at least 21,320 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
