14 Days: Hostage tragedy

HOSTAGE TRAGEDY 

IDF soldiers mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages – Alon Lulu Shamriz, 26; Samer Fouad Talalka, 22; and Yotam Haim, 28 – in Gaza City on December 15. After an initial probe, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi determined that the soldiers had shot at the hostages even though they had screamed “Help!” in Hebrew and held up a white flag, the soldiers thereby violating the IDF rules of engagement. Halevi said that at this stage, the IDF was treating it as a tragic error under very difficult circumstances, but the soldiers could be subject to further investigation by the IDF legal division. It was also revealed that Israeli-American Gadi Haggai, 73, was killed on October 7 and hostage Inbar Haiman, 27,  was murdered in captivity.  Israel estimated that 128 hostages remain in Gaza – not all of them alive.

WAR TOLL 

On December 25, the IDF announced that the number of soldiers killed since the ground operation in Gaza began on October 27 had reached 156 after 14 soldiers were killed over the weekend. Seven soldiers were killed in mid-December when IDF forces clashed with Hamas’s Al-Quds Brigades as they charged through Khan Yunis, which the military described as Hamas’s center following the fall of Gaza City to the IDF. The IDF said troops uncovered more than 800 tunnels, killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, and took hundreds more back to Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza claimed that since the start of the war, 20,000 Palestinians had been killed. While these figures could not be verified, they are believed to include at least 8,000 Hamas fighters. 

HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS 

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at northern Israel on December 22, killing an IDF soldier, Sgt. Amit Hod Ziv, 19, and seriously wounding another. On December 16, reservist Yehezkel Azaria, 53, from Petah Tikva was killed, and another two soldiers were wounded when a Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon exploded near the northern community of Margaliot. A second drone was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. In response, the IDF targeted Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon.

TERRORIST SHOOTING 

Mevaseret Cohen, 27, sustained moderate wounds in a shooting attack by Palestinian terrorists on December 18 near the Palestinian city of Rawabi and the Israeli settlement of Ateret. Her husband and their six-week-old baby were in the car with her at the time of the attack, but both were unharmed. The husband, Yishai Cohen, a reservist soldier on leave from fighting in the Gaza Strip, used his weapon to fire back at the terrorists, forcing them to halt the attack. Security forces launched a widespread search for the gunmen.

BUDGET PASSED 

The Knesset passed Israeli’s controversial,  amended state budget for 2023 in a 59-44 vote on December 14.  While the new budget included an addition of almost NIS 30 billion for the war effort (NIS 17 billion on defense expenditure and NIS 12 billion on rehabilitation assistance to southern community evacuees), almost a billion shekels were allocated to non-war-related spending, including discretionary coalition funds, settlement development and haredi educational and cultural projects. Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, which joined the wartime coalition, voted against the amended budget, with Gantz declaring, “Any available money should go to war needs and only to them.” 

HOUTHI STRIKES 

A Houthi drone strike damaged a ship allegedly linked to Israel off the coast of India on December 23 but caused no casualties, and Israeli officials blamed Tehran for being directly behind the attack. It was the latest in more than 100 drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Citing newly declassified American intelligence, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Iran was providing weapons, funding, training, and “tactical intelligence” to enable the Houthi strikes along the sea corridor.

SHALOM, PANTZ 

Zvi Pantanowitz, a beloved South African-born Israeli news broadcaster with a velvet voice, passed away peacefully on December 15 at the age of 88. A pharmacist by profession, Pantz, as he was called by family and friends, made aliyah with his wife, Dorothy, from South Africa in 1960. He worked as a popular reporter, editor, and director of Kol Yisrael’s English News for many years, after which he moved for several years to the Reshet Bet Hebrew News. He is survived by his wife, three children, and  12 grandchildren.