The Israeli Army says three hostages who were mistakenly shot dead by troops in Gaza had been holding a white flag. Early findings from an official investigation said the men were fired on in breach of the army's own rules of engagement. An Israeli soldier began shooting when three shirtless men emerged from a building in the suburbs of Gaza City. Alon Shamriz, Yolam Haim, and Samir Al-Talekai were killed in Asha Jigga in the north of Gaza. The IDF says their killing was very tragic. An army spokesman told the BBC that the soldier and his colleagues had made a mistake and would not be punished. In a separate development, an Al-Jazira journalist and cameraman, Samir Abu-Daga, was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike from Jerusalem. Our security correspondent, Frank Gairdner, reports. In the.

War zone that is Gaza, Israeli forces have committed a tragic error. In their effort to free hostages, they've shot three of them, mistaking them for Hamas fighters. The young Israeli men were all in their 20s, seized by Hamas in their raid into Israel two months ago. Now an investigation has revealed they were carrying a white flag. Relatives of the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza have been gathering in Tel Aviv, demanding the government do more to get their loved ones out. Israel's policy is to put pressure on Hamas by military force. That, they say, isn't working. There is no price for the hostages. They must be ready to pay any price for their release to make a deal now. That is what I'm saying. Yesterday, not now. In Gaza, another funeral, this time for Samir Abu Daqqa, a well-known Palestinian cameraman who worked for the Al-Jazira network, killed in a drone strike. Friends describe him as a veteran journalist and a talented cameraman.

He is a compassionate soul. He is very dedicated to bringing the coverage to the world. He had the opportunity, by the way, to immigrate to Belgium, to Brussels, where his family is now residing, but he refused. He said, his story is my story.

Across Georgia, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Aid trucks are getting in, but UN workers say in many cases they're mobbed by desperate Palestinians and stripped of their food. Washington wants Israel to wrap up this military operation soon. Israel says it needs months more to finish the job of destroying Hamas. Frank Gairdner, BBC News, Jerusalem.

Well, earlier I spoke to Israeli spokesperson, Mark Regev, about the killing of the three hostages by the IDF. He described it as a tragic mistake.

Well, it's obviously a tragedy, and the IDF is investigating exactly what happened. It's a difficult situation, but first and foremost, our hearts go out to the families of these three hostages who were tragically killed. It was obviously a combat zone. I know that from that area where the three were, there had been hostile fire towards our hostess before, and afterwards there was also hostile fire from that area towards our forces. The whole area is a war zone. It doesn't, of course, justify what happened, and that's why it's being investigated at the highest level by the Israeli Defense Forces. It's unacceptable what happened.

Mr. Regev, an initial report by Israel's military says that these deaths went against Israel's rules of engagement. What are those rules of engagement?

So some of them we have to keep confidential because Hamas is listening to our conversation, and we want to keep some things from the enemy. But it's clear that we don't want to kill innocent. It's clear that we don't want to kill our hostages if we find them. It's clear that this was a tragic, tragic error by our forces. And we have to do our own checking to make sure do our maximum that it won't reoccur. One of the problems we face is, of course, that Hamas don't wear uniforms. They wear civilian clothes. They are terrorists. There have been incidents, as you know, in the past, where supposedly surrender and then they attack our forces, it's very difficult combat, house to house. Suddenly you think an area is clean and someone comes out of a door or comes out of an underground tunnel and can open fire on our forces. It's difficult combat. I'm not justifying what happened. If soldiers broke the rules of engagement, there has to be action taken. But I'm just giving the context of how these things can happen. I did my military service. I think anyone who's been in any army knows in combat there's always a danger of what the experts call blue on blue or friendly fire casualties.

That can always happen. In this case, it's even more egregious because obviously the victims of the tragic incident were, in fact, civilians. They were taken hostage by Hamas. We have to find out and get to the bottom exactly what happened.

Let me ask you this because we are seeing protests now and we've had relatives of hostages here on the BBC News as well expressing their frustration. It seems to be the case that getting the hostages out by force isn't working when a temporary ceasefire did work and we saw dozens of hostages released. Is this time for a change of course now?

We would argue, and we believe we're correct, that we only had the release of the previous 105 hostages precisely because of the use of force. Hamas only agreed to their release when it was desperate for a cease-fire. They didn't suddenly become humanitarians. They didn't suddenly decide that, Oh, we're going to release hostages out of the goodness of their heart or out of respect for international humanitarian law. Hamas has no respect. Their whole behavior is against the rules of armed conflict, against international humanitarian law. That's who Hamas is. And just as they butchered Israelis, they have no qualms about butchering innocents. We've seen that over and over again. Hamas will only release hostages if they're under pressure. And we believe the military pressure is the way to do that. Now, of course, we understand the hostage families. One can only start to begin to understand their pain, their suffering, having a loved one being held by Hamas, and knowing what terrible, gruesome violence that Hamas is capable of. And so, of course, one feels for them. If there is an opportunity to free hostages, we will take that opportunity.