The Israeli army said Saturday that three hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew. 

Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa — all in their 20s — were shot during operations in Gaza City on Friday, sparking protests in Israel.

They were among about 250 people taken hostage during Palestinian militant group Hamas's October 7 attacks in Israel, which killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement that has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins. The territory's Hamas government says the war has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that during fighting in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, troops "mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result, fired toward them and the hostages were killed".

An army official said the hostages were all "without shirts" and had "a stick with a white cloth on it", but a soldier felt threatened and opened fire.

"Two are killed immediately, one is injured and runs back into the building," the official said, adding that the soldiers heard "a cry for help… in Hebrew".

Despite a ceasefire order, "there's another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies."

The official called it a "tragic" event and "very hard day", but said the troops had faced "intense combat in the area".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described their deaths as an "unbearable tragedy".

Hundreds were expected to gather Saturday in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu's government to secure the release of 129 hostages still held in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

"I am dying of fear," said Merav Svirsky, sister of hostage Itay Svirsky at a protest on Friday. "We demand a deal now."

'He died hungry'

In November, a one-week truce saw more than 100 hostages freed in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but fighting has since resumed.

The hostages' deaths have heightened already fierce scrutiny of how Israel is conducting its ground and air assault in Gaza.

The White House, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has voiced growing concern over civilian deaths.

"I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful," US President Joe Biden said this week.

News platform Axios said the director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, David Barnea, was due to meet this weekend in an unspecified location in Europe with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped negotiate the earlier truce.

In Gaza, fierce fighting continued. 

The Israeli army said Saturday it had raided two schools in Gaza City. It said they were Hamas hiding places.

A funeral was held in Gaza for Samer Abu Daqqa, a journalist with TV network Al Jazeera killed the previous day by an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis that also wounded his colleague, Wael al-Dahdouh.

"He died hungry, they died with nothing to eat, with hunger. Oh my darling," said his grieving mother, Umm Maher.

More than 60 journalists and media staff have died since the war began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"We were reporting, we were filming, we had finished and we were with the civil defence, but when we were on the way back, they hit us with a missile," said Dahdouh, who lost his wife, two children and grandchild earlier in the war.

Aid crossing opens

In the face of growing international pressure, Israel announced a "temporary measure" allowing aid to be delivered directly to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

A World Health Organization representative said the decision was "very good news".

Since the war began, aid has trickled into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Humanitarian agencies have said the volume is just a fraction of what is needed to help the estimated 1.9 million Gazans displaced by the war.

Washington hopes the Palestinian Authority can resume control of Gaza as part of a renewed push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a solution that Netanyahu has resolutely opposed.

The conflict has appeared to push any peace deal further out of view.

Western rebuke

Multiple Western governments issued a joint statement demanding that Israel "take concrete steps to halt unprecedented violence by Israeli settlers" in the West Bank. 

More than 280 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the war in Gaza erupted.

Israel's police force said it had suspended several officers after they severely assaulted a journalist for Turkish news agency Anadolu as he was trying to take photos of Palestinians praying in annexed east Jerusalem.

And on Saturday eight Palestinians were arrested across the West Bank during Israeli raids, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The war continues to be felt across the Middle East, with fears of a new front opening on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where it has exchanged regular fire with militants, mainly the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli air defences "intercepted a hostile aircraft" from Lebanon after sirens blared in the northern town of Zarit, the army said.

The conflict has also spilled over into vital Red Sea shipping routes. 

A British destroyer brought down a suspected attack drone, defence minister Grant Shapps said Saturday.

Global shipping lines Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd earlier announced they were halting voyages through the area following attacks on vessels by Yemeni rebels allied with Hamas.