Hundreds of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv last Friday night to protest the death of three hostages accidentally killed by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, according to media reports.

Images broadcast by Israeli television showed large crowds gathering in central Tel Aviv and blocking a main artery. They demanded that the government take action to secure the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

With banners, placards and posters with the names and the photographs of many other hostages, the protesters marched towards the Israeli army headquarters. As reported by the ynet news site, they threw red paint on the road.

“Their time is running out! Bring them home now,” chanted the protesters.

The crowd criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for not doing enough to free hostages kidnapped by Hamas and held in the Gaza Strip.

According to the protesters, a new deal on hostages, like the one reached at the end of November, would have prevented incidents like the one in Gaza yesterday, Friday.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced yesterday that three Israeli hostages were accidentally killed by soldiers during a battle with Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli armed forces mistakenly took them as a threat during an operation in the Hamas stronghold of Sejaiya, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. and they opened fire in their direction and killed them, he stated.

“It is a tragic incident, the army bears full responsibility,” Hagari noted, while Israel’s armed forces immediately launched an investigation into the incident.

Haggari noted that Sejaiya is an “active battle zone” where clashes have been raging continuously in recent days and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths of the three hostages “an indescribable tragedy”.

“The entire state of Israel is in mourning tonight. My heart goes out to the grieving families in this difficult time of their pain,” he wrote in a social media post last night.

Netanyahu also referred to “our three beloved sons.” “Even on this difficult night, we will heal our wounds, learn our lessons and continue to do our utmost to bring all our hostages home safely,” he noted.

The US government described the deaths of the three hostages as “painful” and “tragic”, adding that it believed the Israeli government would investigate how it happened.

“Obviously this is not an outcome that anyone wanted to see,” noted John Kirby, the White House’s National Security Council communications director.

This incident is not appropriate to make a general judgment about whether the Israeli military is capable of taking precision action in the Gaza Strip, Kirby added.