Efrat Katz was in a car along with his captors when an Israeli aircraft fired.
An Israeli investigation has discovered {that a} girl who was kidnapped through the October 7 Hamas assault was “in all probability” killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired on her captors' car.
Efrat Katz, an Israeli, and a lot of the fighters within the car have been killed when the aircraft fired on them, a military investigation mentioned Friday.
The helicopter “shot at a car that had terrorists in it, and that, looking back, primarily based on the testimonies, it additionally had hostages,” the military mentioned in an announcement.
“Because of the fireplace, a lot of the terrorists occupying the car have been killed, and most certainly, Efrat Katz … was killed as effectively.”
The “tragic and unlucky” occasion occurred at a time of “battle and circumstances of uncertainty,” Israeli Air Pressure chief Tomer Bar mentioned within the assertion.
“The aviation commander didn’t discover any faults within the operation by the helicopter crew, which operated in accordance with the order in a posh actuality of struggle.”
The military assertion mentioned that the error occurred as a result of the surveillance techniques couldn’t distinguish the hostages from the abductors as soon as in a car, and that “capturing was outlined as capturing at a car with terrorists”.
Do the prisoners
Katz, 68 on the time of the Hamas assault in southern Israel, was kidnapped from the settlement of Nir Oz close to the Gaza fence.
Her daughter Doron Katz-Asher and her two sons have been taken hostage through the assault, however have been later launched on November 24.
Katz's associate Gadi Moses and his ex-wife Margalit Moses have been additionally taken hostage through the assault. She was later launched, however Gadi is believed to be in captivity in Gaza and nonetheless alive.
Israel mentioned about 1,200 individuals have been killed through the October 7 assault and greater than 200 have been taken prisoner – dozens of whom have since been launched. It’s estimated that round 130 are nonetheless in Gaza.
Israel responded to the Hamas assault with a relentless offensive in Gaza that killed no less than 33,091 individuals, largely ladies and kids, in line with the well being ministry within the strip.
In December, three Israeli prisoners in Gaza have been mistakenly killed by Israeli forces.
They have been shirtless and one in every of them was holding a white flag, the army mentioned.
Hamas's army wing mentioned final month that one other seven prisoners died on account of Israel's shelling, including that the overall variety of prisoners killed by Israeli army operations “might exceed” 70.
This week, media reviews make clear the AI-assisted system Israel is utilizing to establish targets for its bombing marketing campaign in Gaza. The publications mentioned that the system, which had an error charge of about 10 p.c, led to lots of the 1000’s of civilian deaths within the struggle.
