Video footage recovered from an IDF dog recorded on December 10, has revealed the moment when IDF Golani forces allowed the three hostages who were mistakenly shot dead by another force five days later, to escape their captors.
In a prelude to a battle in Shejaia between Hamas terrorists and IDF Golani forces on December 10, an IDF dog was sent into a suspicious area.
When Hamas forces shot the dog, IDF forces realized there were terrorists present and engaged them.
The IDF Golani forces succeeded in killing the Hamas terrorists on the site.
As with some ongoing war situations, since IDF soldiers were wounded, the Golani forces moved on to attack other Hamas forces in the area and did not immediately come to retrieve the dog.
After the fact, it turns out that though the dog died, a camera embedded on its body continued to function.
That camera eventually caught footage of the three hostages escaping the area, once they saw that their Hamas guards had been killed.
BREAKING: In a WILD turn the IDF has now disclosed that a video camera on a dead dog recorded the moment on Dec. 10 when 3 hostages were unknowingly freed by the IDF - only later to be MISTAKENLY killed by other IDF forces Dec. 15. The video was recovered Dec. 18.
— Yonah Jeremy Bob (@jeremybob1) December 20, 2023
The IDF forces did not get close enough to see them and did not recover the recording from the dog until December 18, after which it took some time to analyze it.
In retrospect, the Golani forces involved believe they heard calls of “Save us” and “Hostages” in Hebrew, but they believed that these were ruses by Hamas to get them to let their guard down since similar ruses have been common during the Gaza War.
The IDF has concluded that this spot, about a kilometer from where the hostages were later mistakenly gunned down by other IDF forces, was the place from which the hostages were freed and that they then tried to escape and send signals to the IDf while avoiding being recaptured over the next five days.
The three, named Yotam Chaim, Samer Talalka, and Alon Shamriz, were all taken hostage during the October 7 massacre against southern Israeli communities.
According to an initial probe, the hostages were standing near a building with the words "help" and "SOS" spray-painted on its exterior walls.
In addition, the IDF also found a message saying "three hostages - help" on the buildings two days before the deadly altercation.
Initially, the IDF avoided the buildings with those messages, believing that they were Hamas traps.