Extract from ABC News
The Israeli military on Friday mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages during its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, military officials say.
Key points:
- Three Israeli hostages were killed in ground operations in Gaza
- An Al Jazeera journalist has also been killed
- The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas
The army's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Israeli troops found the hostages and erroneously identified them as a threat.
He said it was not clear if they had escaped their captors or been abandoned.
The deaths occurred in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops have engaged in fierce battles against Hamas militants in recent days.
Rear Admiral Hagari said the army expressed "deep sorrow" and was investigating.
Al Jazeera journalist killed
Al Jazeera television said on Friday an Israeli strike killed one of its journalists in Gaza, Palestinian cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa.
The strike also wounded the Qatari-owned network's chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh.
The two were reporting on the grounds of a school in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the strike hit, the network said.
Before Abu Daqqa's death, at least 63 journalists had been killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel on October 7, according to the media freedom organisation, The Committee to Protect Journalists.
They include 56 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.
US adviser meets with Palestinian president
United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the besieged enclave's postwar future, which, according to a senior US official, could include bringing back Palestinian security forces driven from their jobs in Gaza by Hamas in its 2007 takeover.
American and Israeli officials have been vague in public about how Gaza will be run if Israel achieves its goal of ending Hamas control.
The notion that Palestinian security forces could return was floated as one of several ideas.
It appeared to be the first time Washington offered details on its vision for security arrangements in the enclave.
Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there and says it won't allow a postwar foothold for the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is deeply unpopular with Palestinians.
In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, Mr Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war.
Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant told Mr Sullivan that it would take months to destroy Hamas, but he did not say whether his estimate referred to the current phase of heavy air strikes and ground battles.
Mr Sullivan said on Friday that "there is no contradiction between saying the fight is going to take months and also saying that different phases will take place at different times over those months, including the transition from the high-intensity operations to more targeted operations".
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