Who Ordered the Fire
The mother of a hostage killed by IDF fire in Gaza said troops had sweeping fire orders and were told to open fire on sight. That is the hard edge of command: a hostage dead, soldiers acting under broad orders, and a family left to speak publicly about what happened after the fact. Haaretz said Iris Haim, mother of slain hostage Yotam, spoke to Channel 13 on Thursday and claimed troops were told to open fire on sight.
The account puts the machinery of military authority front and center. In Haim's telling, the people carrying out the orders were not improvising; they were following a system that authorized fire first and questions later. The result, as reported, was the killing of Yotam, a hostage, by IDF fire in Gaza.
Who Gets to Escape Blame
In a separate Gaza hostage-related account, former hostage Rom Braslavski said those responsible for the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, are currently in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Speaking at a press conference organized by the October Council, a group representing families of victims of the October 7 massacre, Braslavski said Hamas "did what they did, but those responsible are here in the Knesset."
He did not stop there. Braslavski said, "The victims' blood is all over you," and urged lawmakers to resign. He added, "Right before you leave, set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate what exactly happened here so that it never happens again." The demand for a commission of inquiry is the familiar institutional answer: investigate, document, and let the state examine itself. Whether that produces accountability or just another layer of managed outrage is left hanging in the air, right where the politicians like it.
Braslavski also said, "At the Nova music festival there were Nukhba terrorists who did what they did," referring to Hamas' elite unit, which led the attack. His remarks placed the violence of October 7 in the same frame as the political class now sitting in the Knesset, the place where responsibility is being argued over while the dead remain dead and the living keep testifying.
What the Families Are Saying
The October Council, described as a group representing families of victims of the October 7 massacre, organized the press conference where Braslavski spoke. That detail matters because it shows who is trying to force the issue into public view: families, survivors, and the people left to carry the aftermath while institutions trade blame and issue statements.
The article ties the two accounts together through the same brutal logic of hierarchy. On one side, a mother says troops had sweeping fire orders and were told to open fire on sight. On the other, a freed hostage says the people responsible are in the Knesset and should resign, then calls for a state commission of inquiry. Both accounts point toward systems of command and political power, not just isolated acts.
The timing also matters. The October 7 attack is marked in the source as the second anniversary. That means the demands for accountability are not arriving in a vacuum; they are coming after two years in which the official structures have had time to explain, deflect, and keep themselves intact.
What remains in the record is plain enough: a hostage killed by IDF fire in Gaza, claims of sweeping fire orders, a former hostage accusing lawmakers in the Knesset of responsibility, and a family-led press conference demanding resignations and a state commission of inquiry. The apparatus keeps its titles. The families keep the grief and the questions.