Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 83?

The IDF announced on Thursday that it will not take any current action against soldiers who mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages on December 15 who were waving a white flag, screamed “help” in Hebrew, and were bare from the waist up .

The three, named Yotam Chaim, Samer Talalka, and Alon Shamriz, were all taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 massacre against southern Israeli communities.

In publishing the results of its final probe into the issue, the IDF said that despite the soldiers clearly violating the rules of engagement – by firing on persons who presented no immediate danger and were waving a white flag – the enormous complexity of the circumstances led to no immediate punishment.

Soldiers who killed hostages to remain in Gaza

IDF sources suggested that once the war was over it was possible that disciplinary or other action might theoretically be taken against some of the soldiers involved, but in the meantime the soldiers are being left to continue to fight in the field.

The IDF legal division also technically can second-guess the IDF chief, but that is a very rare occurrence.

IDF infographic on the location of the killed Gaza hostages (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Also, with it being ambiguous when the war will be “over,” given discussions of higher and lower intensity stages, it seems that no action will be taken for the foreseeable future.

Already back on December 16, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi had signaled this would be the direction he would go in.

Back then he had also said that the soldiers had violated open fire rules, but on the other hand he had not mentioned even removing them from combat without any formal penalty.

Also, at the time the IDF legal division sidestepped addressing the issue, pending the IDF chief’s probe.

But there have been cases where initial evidence was strong enough to launch an initial criminal probe and where the soldiers involved were immediately arrested and questioned under caution - which was not done here.   

The incident happened in the Shejaia neighborhood of Gaza City, an area of intense combat where Hamas terrorists have been operating in civilian attire and used complex deception tactics.

Some of those tactics have included trying to use white flags, stuffed animals, or seemingly harmless women to get IDF soldiers to approach an area, where some other terrorists then opens fire or sets off a remote explosive device.

According to the final IDF probe, around six Hamas fighters had been killed or observed recently by IDF forces along the line of travel which the three hostages likely took based on the multiple locations where the IDF has established they definitely spent time.

Some of the Hamas terrorists were killed by infantry, one by a tank, and one by a drone.

All of this information was in the minds of the soldiers involved in killing the three hostages.

Details of the IDF's investigation into the killings

The final probe found that the soldiers opened fire on the three at a distance of 38 meters where the hostages were standing at a window one floor up from the ground level of a house.

According to the high command’s understanding of the open fire rules, such a distance and without seeing any weapon, and certainly seeing a white flag and a bare upper body disqualifying the likelihood of explosives, there was no reasonable way to argue the soldiers could have felt threatened.

The building in which the Gaza hostages where hiding (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

However, the soldiers argued that they were given additional instructions from local commanders in the field about what was considered a threat and when to fire, and that 38 meters and suspicious activity from a window fell within those open fire rules.

Further, given the many fake surrender traps Hamas has set throughout the war, including using Hebrew, white flags, and actual children’s items seized by Hamas in Israel on October 7, Halevi and other commanders seem to be willing to recognize the subjective sense of danger felt by the soldiers involved as valid enough to avoid immediate punishment.

Controversially, the first soldier who opened fire has admitted that he did see the white flag, but still felt it was a trap and that he was in danger.

The IDF's 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade uncovered on Thursday an underground route that was connected to a war room belonging to Nukhba commandos of the Hamas terror organization in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

The soldiers in the brigade had "eliminated terrorists and located several tunnel shafts and terrorist infrastructure that were subsequently destroyed by combat engineering soldiers," the IDF said, and "located a tunnel shaft and a rocket launcher inside a mosque, which was next to a school."

Israeli forces found inside the mosque a staging area that included observation and combat posts that endangered the soldiers.

Tunner, war room used by Hamas for combat practice and weapons transfer

The tunnel and the war room were used by Nukhba operatives as a place of combat and transfer of weapons. Israel forces had since dismantled the tunnel route and the war room.

The IDF had been focusing on destroying Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure and underground tunnels in the municipality of Bani Suheila.

The IDF struck the source of a rocket barrage fired from Lebanon, it said on Thursday, amid heavy attacks on northern border towns and the Golan Heights.

Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the death of Judy Weinstein Hagai on Thursday, who was killed by Hamas on October 7.

Judy was 70 years old, and a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Mother of four, grandmother of seven. She was an English teacher specializing in children with special needs and worked with children with anxiety. She was a poet and entrepreneur, and was dedicated to working for peace and brotherhood, the kibbutz said. 

Judy's husband, Gadi Hagai, 72, was also murdered in the October 7 massacre his body is also still in the hands of Hamas.

Muhammad Issa, the son of Hamas's Deputy Military Commander, was killed in an IDF attack on Thursday morning, Israeli media reported citing Palestinian media.

This is a developing story.

The IDF brought the Jerusalem Post and some other media outlets on Thursday for a special visit of military intelligence's office to collect items seized from Hamas for inspecting, cataloging, and translating into operational intelligence.

Since October 7, the office of around 350 personnel, the majority reservists, has sorted through over 65 million electronic files and 500,000 physical documents, with the current rate of new incoming electronic files reaching the region of one million per day.

Using the IDF intelligence catalog office's conclusions, there have been a huge number of instances where IDF soldiers in the field were saved from Hamas ambushes.

For example, physical maps and electronic files have revealed to the IDF many of the places where Hamas has concealed tunnel shafts and spots for sharpshooters set up for ambushes.

In one instance, a Hamas map was seized by IDF Division 36 from an aid to Hamas Shejaia battalion commander Wessam Farhat which IDF intelligence Unit 9900 succeeded in translating into an operation to attack specific tunnel ambush points.

A handwritten map of Hamas's tunnel networks seized by the IDF (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

IDF engineering then coordinated the destruction of the tunnel.

An Israeli soldier died on Tuesday after suffering from what appears to be a rare fungal infection he developed after being wounded in Gaza more than two weeks ago. The soldier’s death, along with other fungal infections among hospitalized soldiers, has sparked panic in the media. Experts say that the cases do not mean that Israel will face an epidemic of fungal infections.

“There is no need to panic,” Professor Nadav Davidovitch, director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University, told The Media Line. He said the Israeli health system was monitoring the situation to see whether there was any pattern among the soldiers who had suffered fungal infections after being wounded in Gaza.

Davidovitch stressed that infections of this sort often develop after open wounds are exposed to a war zone environment for a prolonged amount of time.

Like in previous wars, he said, “We have cases of soldiers who are being severely wounded, who are also in an environmental situation where the wound can be infected and may take time for them to be evacuated into a medical facility.”

He noted that the soldier who recently died had been severely wounded. “This situation can increase the risk for infection, especially if you are in a war field,” he said.

Israel’s Health Ministry stated on Tuesday that multisystem injuries of this type also damage the immune system, increasing the risk of developing infections.

Egypt confirmed on Thursday that it had put forward a framework proposal to end the bloodshed in Gaza, including a three-stage plan for a ceasefire, the head of its state media body said.

Egypt is yet to get responses on the proposal from the parties involved, and will give details about the plan once those responses are received, said Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service.

A United Nations report published on Thursday deplored what it said was a "rapid deterioration" of human rights in the West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there.

The report, published by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said 300 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, the day Hamas gunmen went on a deadly rampage in southern Israel and took hostages back to Gaza.

Most of the killings occurred during operations by Israeli security forces or confrontations with them.

How does the death toll in the West Bank correlate with the war?

At least 105 deaths could be attributed to Israeli operations involving air strikes or other military tactics in refugee camps or other densely populated areas. At least eight people were killed by settlers, it said.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on the report. Israel has said its operations in the West Bank are preemptive and aimed at curbing security threats.

Israel shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle that had crossed into its territory from Lebanon on Thursday, the military said. Air raid sirens had sounded in northern Israel and there were no immediate reports of casualties.