ISRAEL has claimed Hamas is using recordings of children screaming “save me, save me!” to lure IDF troops into death traps.
Government spokesman Avi Hyman spoke to The Sun about the particularly heinous methods used by the terror group and how Israeli troops are “struggling psychologically”.
IDF Spokesperson/XChildren’s toys and belongings have allegedly been rigged to lure IDF soldiers into traps[/caption]
The IDF claimed a child’s pink backpack was used to disguise a bomb
AFPAn Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip on December 19[/caption]
He said: “There’s a lot of psychological warfare being waged by Hamas against our soldiers.
“We’ve heard reports of them setting up scenarios by which the soldiers would think that there’s hostages in a specific area to then ambush them.
“So we’ve heard reports of them playing Israeli toddlers saying, ‘Save me! Save me’, you know, from within buildings that are booby trapped.”
He even revealed shocking video evidence seen by Israel that shows the true extent to which Hamas are willing to go.
Hyman said: “We saw video evidence of like a circle of babies’ toys, children’s toys that were all booby trapped.
“In the middle there was some sort of a device that was playing Israeli music and making noises as if there were young children there.
“Because we know obviously that they’ve taken many hostages, and we still have that 9 month old baby, who’s now 11 months in their custody.
“So psychological warfare is rife.”
On Sunday Israeli forces said booby traps planted by Hamas terrorists included a child’s pink rucksack with a bomb hidden inside.
Chilling footage shared by the IDF showed a solder opening the bag to find explosives.
The IDF said: “The bag was booby-trapped, containing a remote-activated explosive device—weighing 7 kg.
“Hamas purposefully chose to booby-trap a child’s backpack with the hope a well-intentioned civilian would pick it up.”
They also claim Hamas used baby dolls to disguise the speakers playing the sounds of distressed Israeli children.
Some of the traps were also allegedly attached to the bodies of the dead, including Canadian-Israeli mother Adi Vital-Kaploun, 33, according to reports.
Apparently her body was booby-trapped to ensure that anyone who wanted to move it would be injured, according to her friend Dina Zaslacski.
“They put bombs all over her body, and her dad was in the house. Thank God he didn’t open the door,” she said.
Then speaking of the three hostages mistakenly killed by friendly fire last week, Hyman told The Sun “it’s an ongoing investigation”.
He told The Sun that Israeli troops were expecting hostages to be “deep underground” and “shackled”, leaving them unprepared for the situation.
Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 were killed in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday 15.
An Israeli official said the men had emerged shirtless from a building with one carrying a white flag on a stick.
They were tens of metres away but feeling threatened, an IDF soldier declared them “terrorists” and opened fire.
Israeli authorities admitted that killing the trio as they held a white flag was a breach of “rules of engagement”.
When Israeli forces searched the building on Sunday they found “SOS” and “Help, 3 hostages” written in food on fabric.
Hyman added that the IDF hopes all the necessary measures have been taken so “it never happens again”.
He described it as a “heart-wrenching” mistake.
As far as minimising civilian casualties, Hyman said the IDF have been putting out “detailed maps” of their impending movements, encouraging Palestinian civilians to “get out of the way”.
He said: “We don’t want you to get caught up in the line of fire”.
Days ago the IDF also came under fire from the international community as it was accused of killing a Palestinian mother and daughter sheltering inside a church.
Pope Francis dubbed their deaths as an “act of terrorism” after he previously said the conflict in Gaza had “gone beyond war”.
Nahida and her daughter Samar Antoun, both Christians, were taking refuge inside the Holy Family Parish church in Gaza when they were shot dead.
Church officials claimed the pair were killed in “cold blood” in a church where many Christian families have been sheltering since the start of the war.
“One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.
“They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
A further seven people were shot and injured as they tried to protect others hiding inside the church.
A relative of Nahida and Samar claimed they were shot by Israeli snipers.
The IDF hit back, claiming it was investigating the incident but that so far had not concluded that their murders were a result of Israeli fire.
Hyman described the tragedy as a “calamity” but again said the incident was under investigation.
He added: “We don’t know the full picture yet. It’s still being looked into… the way it’s being framed is as as if Israel purposely shot these these civilian women in a church.
“That’s absurd. Israel doesn’t target churches. Israel doesn’t target civilians”.
Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli PM, previously said: “We don’t shoot people who are going to church to pray.”
Following the UN’s landmark vote last week for a ceasefire, the General Assembly is set to vote again today.
Hyman said Israel “truly appreciated” America’s veto of the motion last week, as “a ceasefire at this point would do nothing.
“So from the Israeli perspective, we will continue. This war will end when Hamas ends. This war will end when all of our hostages are back home with their families.”
Speaking of the ground operation, he stated: “I think we’re closer every day.
“I’ll stress that I’m not an IDF spokesman, and I can’t speak directly to ongoing operational activity, but I can see that we’ve we’ve taken significant action in the north of Gaza that we have destroyed hundreds of tunnel shafts.”
As the battles grow ever-increasingly more brutal inside the Gaza Strip, US President Biden expressed fears that Israel is starting to lose international support due to “indiscriminate bombing” and has urged the country to “be more careful”.
Hamas recently claimed 110 were killed in another strike on a refugee camp.
More than 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far – Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims.
Israel disputes these figures – and US President Joe Biden previously said he had “no confidence” in them.
But Benjamin Netanyahu admitted Israel has “not been successful” in reducing civilian casualties.
AFPIsraeli forces shot dead three hostages and found this sign reading ‘SOS, Help, 3 hostages’ inside the building they were sheltering in[/caption]
APYotam Haim, 28, one of the hostages who was killed[/caption]
@hammam_therapy / XNahida and her daughter Samar allegedly died after they were shot by IDF forces while sheltering in a church in northern Gaza[/caption]
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