(NewsNation) — Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces had been holding up a white flag, according to an initial inquiry into the incident, a military official said on Saturday.
It happened in an area of intense combat where Hamas militants operate in civilian attire and use deception tactics, the official said. The hostages were fired upon against Israel’s rules of engagement, the official added.
Anger over the mistaken killing of the three — young men in their 20s — is likely to increase pressure on the government to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more captives for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiraled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down Thursday evening and were still inaccessible Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director. The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south.
The offensive, triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. Displaced people have squeezed into shelters mainly in the south in a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
With only a trickle of aid able to enter Gaza and distribution disrupted by fighting, the U.N.’s World Food Program reported a surge from 38% to 56% in the number of displaced households experiencing severe levels of hunger in the space of under two weeks. In the north, where aid has been unable to enter, “households … are expected to face a catastrophic situation,” the WFP said.
The offensive has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday before the communications blackout. Thousands more are missing and feared dead beneath the rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Its latest count did not specify how many were women and minors, but they have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead in previous tallies.
On Friday, an Israeli strike killed a Palestinian journalist and wounded another in the southern city of Khan Younis, both working for the Al Jazeera television network. The two were reporting at a school that had been hit by an earlier airstrike when a drone launched a second strike, the network said.
Dozens of mourners held funeral prayers for Samer Abu Daqqa outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the Qatari network reported. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the cameraman was the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted. The others included 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.
Khan Younis has been the main target of Israel’s ground offensive in the south.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of Gaza, but the White House continues to offer wholehearted support with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing.
In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was also expected to visit Israel soon to discuss the issue.
The U.S. has pushed Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, and the government said it would open a second entry point to speed up deliveries.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.