The family of Alon Shamriz is speaking out after the 26-year-old was mistakenly killed by the IDF. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
Avi Shamriz buried his son in Israel on Sunday. Hundreds of people came to the funeral to mourn for 26-year-old Alon Shamriz, who was so close to freedom, so close to an epic escape story with a Hollywood ending.
Until he and two other escaped hostages were shot dead in a horrible mistake by Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza.
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“They didn’t ask questions, they didn’t ask for identity, they just shot,” Shamriz, who is a veteran of IDF special forces, told NBC News.
The family is stunned. The three escaped hostages fashioned a white flag with SOS written on it in Hebrew. They walked down the middle of a street toward IDF soldiers in broad daylight, without shirts on so they wouldn’t be mistaken as suicide bombers, and they were shouting in Hebrew.
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“We never shot people who were surrendering, we never shot people who were holding white flag in their hand and said help,” Shamriz said, recounting his urban combat experience.
“I mean I was sitting right there, refreshing one of the Israeli newspapers, and all of a sudden I see his picture there, killed, and like my breath just got caught and I felt this pain in my heart and it was just shocking, so shocking,” said Oded Eshel, Alon’s cousin and Fort Lauderdale resident.
Eshel is still struggling to process the entire series of violent events, from the brutal Hamas kidnapping on Oct. 7 to death by friendly fire after managing to escape.
“Split second decision by a sniper and that’s it, and it’s like, you don’t know how to think about that, I don’t know, it shatters you to have it end like that,” Eshel said. “This is the most tragic ending to the story that I could imagine, I’ve thought about a million different ways that this was gonna end, I never imagined it would end like this.”
The family knows Hamas doesn’t fight in uniform, they understand the difficulties of fighting in Gaza, and while they blame the terrorists ultimately for Alon’s death, they are also furious at the IDF as well, saying the army did not follow its own rules of engagement. The IDF has acknowledged the tragic errors and is investigating the incident.
“You murdered my son twice, you let the Hamas take my son on Oct. 7th, and you killed my son on Dec. 14th,” Shamriz said, speaking of the IDF.
“Our family feels like my cousin was betrayed by the army on Oct. 7th and betrayed again on Friday,” Eshel said. “And anger, frustration, sadness, ultimately it doesn’t really matter, he’s dead now, and it’s over, that’s it.”
Eshel said his cousin was a hero. Alon was the only one of the three escapees to have IDF experience and he apparently orchestrated the escape effort and planned what he hoped would be a rescue.
When a person dies, Jewish people tend to say, “May their memory be a blessing.” Alon’s family is hoping his memory will be an inspiration.
