Israeli Military Ordered Soldiers in Gaza to “Shoot to Kill” Every Man They Saw

The Israeli military ordered soldiers in Gaza to “shoot to kill” any man they saw, and to “use their judgment” with women and children, according to an investigative documentary on Israeli soldiers’ killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza.

In an hour-long documentary broadcast on Israel’s Channel 13, the mother of one of the hostages killed in Gaza by Israeli soldiers in December 2023 said she had spoken with soldiers involved and that each of them recounted the same order from the military. “I heard this from every soldier who spoke to me,” she said. “They received an unequivocal order: Everything you see — and you will not hesitate, even if they’re civilians — you shoot to kill,” she told the interviewer.

Multiple Israeli soldiers shot and killed the three hostages in Gaza in December 2023, despite the fact that the hostages were waving a white flag and calling out in Hebrew.

Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, who was killed in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza on December 15 along with the two other hostages, also spoke with the soldier who shot her son. “A man, doesn’t matter what age, right away… [shoot] to kill,” said the soldier, whose conversation was aired on the program. “We were even told that if it’s a woman or a child, make your considerations, because things happen,” he said.

Another soldier present during the killing of the hostages explained that the neighborhood had been labeled a “destruction zone,” reiterating that soldiers had been told to shoot to kill. He also said that when soldiers saw Samer Talalka – one of the hostages, who was from a Bedouin community inside Israel – they shot to kill based on recognizing that he was Arab. “Once you identified an Arab appearance in Gaza,” he said, “your first intuition was that these were Hamas terrorists attempting a raid.”

The investigation also revealed that days before the hostages were killed, Israeli soldiers entered the building in Shujaiya where the hostages were held, and reported to their commanders that they heard people shouting “help” and “hostages” in Hebrew. Instead of investigating, the Israeli military bombed the building; the hostages were inside but survived. The hostages then left multiple signs in Hebrew between buildings in Shujaiya reading “help, hostages,” which Israeli soldiers found but ignored, thinking they were a trap.

In the past, Israel has used the “Hannibal Directive,” which allows military force to be used against abducted soldiers, even if it kills the soldier.

Israel’s actions once again give lie to the claim that their primary intention in Gaza since October 2023 has been to “return the hostages.”

Israel has bombarded the Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiya intensely in each of its wars on Gaza, in particular in 2014 and throughout the genocide that began in 2023. By mid-2024, the UN reported that over 80,000 Palestinians had been displaced from the Shujaiya neighborhood by Israeli attacks.

Just days before Israeli soldiers killed the three hostages in Gaza, Israel bombed and killed prominent Palestinian professor and activist Refaat Alareer in a deliberate attack on December 6, 2023. Alareer was in his hometown of Shujaiya, and the Israeli army had previously threatened to kill him due to his outspoken reporting on the genocide.