Israeli Army claims accidentally killing a hostage on October 7th

One of the hostages that was taken by Hamas' fighters -- the Palestinian group declared terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union -- during the attack on Israeli communities around Gaza on 7 October -- was likely killed by an Israeli helicopter that responded to the attack, the military said.

For several weeks the Israelite army has investigated reports that some of the 1,200 Israelites and the victims, foreign citizens, of Hamas' attack, were wrongly killed by Israel during chaos.

During the October 7th attack, Hamas kidnapped more than 250 people.

The military said the investigation into events that took place in connection with the kidnapping of Ephrat Katz, resident of the Nir Oz residence, one of the communities targeted during the attack, was conducted by examining different videos and witness testimony.

Israel said the evidence revealed that an attack helicopter shot at a car with which Hamas' radicals were travelling, and, according to evidence, it said there were hostages in it.

“As a result of the fire, most of the terrorists in the car were killed, and it is likely that Ephrat Katz was also killed”, the report said.

The Israeli Army also said the investigation showed that hostages could not be distinguished by existing monitoring systems.

The Air Force Command did not find that the helicopter team was guilty, as the team was leading the butterfly in line with orders in the complex reality of war”, the military said. /rel