Hostage's mother accuses IDF commander of failing to save her son

Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, who was mistakenly killed by IDF fire in Gaza alongside fellow hostages Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka, has launched a fierce attack on Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, accusing him of ignoring critical indications that the three men were being held in the area. In a personal letter published Saturday, Haim accused Alon, who headed the IDF's Hostages and Missing Persons Directorate during the relevant period, of disregarding intelligence, soldiers' reports and signs left by the hostages that she believes could have led to their rescue. “Your unit received countless reports, clear signs and information from soldiers and commanders in the field about voices shouting in Hebrew, but you dismissed them," she wrote. According to Haim, Alon repeatedly maintained that the voices were part of Hamas operations rather than evidence that Israeli hostages were nearby. Haim also cited two signs that the three hostages reportedly left while trying to escape captivity in Gaza's Shijaiyah neighborhood. The signs read “Three hostages, save us" and “SOS." “Even then, you said there was no need to investigate further because these were diversionary tactics," she wrote. “A notebook containing the handwriting of hostages, found during the operation, proved that hostages were there, but you chose to ignore every sign." Haim further claimed that recordings of the hostages calling for help were not examined in time. She said recordings containing the voices of Yotam and Alon remained on a camera until after her son had been brought home for burial. “The worst thing for me, Mr. Nitzan Alon, is that you never came to look me in the eyes and apologize," she wrote. Haim also accused the military leadership of placing responsibility on soldiers in the field rather than acknowledging failures higher up the chain of command. She asserted that the soldier who shot her son had acted under orders, although her letter did not substantiate that claim, and it differs from the findings of the IDF's investigation, which determined that the shooting violated the rules of engagement. “You could have saved my son. He wasn't waiting for a deal. He escaped on his own," she wrote. Haim concluded by calling on Alon to leave his position before an investigation into the failures of his unit, accusing him of bearing direct responsibility for her son's death. The three hostages were mistakenly shot and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in December 2023, after escaping their Hamas captors. The incident prompted widespread scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding their deaths and the military's handling of information that might have helped locate them.