The Israel Defense Forces will review the death of a Palestinian man who was fatally shot in the Gaza Strip last week while walking in a group of people waving a white flag, with a source saying footage of the episode raised concerns of possible wrongdoing by soldiers.
A video shows a group of five men walking slowly down a street in an area west of the southern city of Khan Younis, a current focus of Israel’s ground offensive as it battles against terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As clouds of dark smoke billow overhead, the men hold their hands in the air. One waves a white flag, an international symbol of surrender.
Suddenly, shots ring out, killing Ramzi Abu Sahloul, a 51-year-old Palestinian shopkeeper, who was part of the group.
The shooter is not seen in the video. But before the shots are fired, the camera pans, showing what looks to be an Israeli tank positioned nearby. Ahmed Hijazi, a citizen journalist who filmed the episode, told The Associated Press that an Israeli tank fired on the group.
“After the soldiers shot him, I rushed to help, but the firing continued toward us,” Hijazi said.
A military official said Sunday that the army was reviewing the shooting, which took place on January 22.
The official said the video, first broadcast by CNN, had helped authorities understand that there were military forces in the area and that there might be possible wrongdoing by soldiers. The British channel ITV earlier had aired a similar video.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because there had not yet been an announcement, would not say whether a formal investigation would take place.
The IDF previously gave an official response to ITV after it showed its similar video, saying the footage was edited and accusing the network of serving as an arm of Hamas’s propaganda effort.
“It is imperative to emphasize that the alarming, libelous and a gross mischaracterization of the war with these despicable accusations can only be deemed as an extension of Hamas’s propaganda effort to defame the IDF and undermine our objective to dismantle Hamas and ensure the terrorist entity never again holds the power to build a terrorist army, invade Israel, murder, burn, rape and abduct Israelis,” the IDF told ITV.
In the video, Hijazi interviewed Abu Sahloul shortly before he was shot. Abu Sahloul said that the group of men was trying to reach relatives whom they had left behind earlier in the day while evacuating their home in southern Gaza.
“The Israelis came to us and told us to evacuate, but they didn’t let my brother out,” Abu Sahloul says. “We want to go and try to get them, God willing.”
Within seconds, Abu Sahloul is shot dead. The other men quickly grab his body and rush back in the direction from which they came. The men declined to be interviewed for fear of retribution.
Palestinians and human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of using disproportionate or indiscriminate force in its Gaza offensive, leading to heavy civilian casualties. They say that even when such killings are caught on video, military investigations rarely result in indictments of the soldiers involved.
War started on October 7 when Hamas-led terrorists carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians in the south of the country amid horrific atrocities of massacres, rape, torture, and mutilation. Terrorists also abducted 253 people and are holding them hostage in Gaza. More than half remain captive.
Israel responded to the attack with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in Gaza, and free the hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says at least 26,637 people have been killed in the Strip during the ongoing war. The death toll cannot be independently verified and is believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 10,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel says that Hamas fighters have embedded themselves within civilian infrastructure, making it difficult to destroy the terror group without harming civilians.
Abu Sahloul’s widow, Hanan Abu Sahloul, 50, said that in the hours before last week’s shooting, the army had entered a building where the family was sheltering along with over 300 others. She said that Israeli forces ordered residents to leave without their belongings.
“When I tried to take my bag, a soldier aimed his gun at my head and ordered me to leave it,” she said.
In the video taken by Hijazi, Hanan Abu Sahloul can be seen running toward her husband, screaming, while the group of men hastily haul his limp body back toward safety.
As gunshots continue to ring out, a bloodstain quickly spreads over her husband’s chest, dark red quickly enveloping the white flag that one of the other men placed on his chest.
“He was immediately killed — without even a few breaths to say goodbye,” Hanan Abu Sahloul said.
In a previous white flag incident, three Israeli hostages who managed to escape their captors tried to give themselves up to IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza. The troops opened fire, killing Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka, and Alon Lulu Shamriz.