The High Court of Justice rejected a petition on Sunday by the parents of slain hostage Alon Shamriz for him to be recognized by the Israel Defense Forces as a fallen soldier.

Shamriz was abducted from his home in Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas terror onslaught, and taken as a hostage into Gaza.

Shamriz, together with two other hostages, succeeded in escaping captivity in December 2023 in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya neighborhood, before the three were mistakenly shot and killed by IDF soldiers operating in the area.

The three were recognized as victims of terrorism, but Shamriz’s parents asked the army to also recognize him as a fallen soldier, which would entitle him to a military burial and enable them to be recognized as parents of a fallen soldier.

The IDF maintains that military funerals are meant only for those who die while actively serving either in the regular army or the reserves.

The parents argued that since Shamriz had received a reserve duty callup on October 7 to the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, which, they said, he would have obeyed, he should be recognized as a fallen soldier. They also argued that he had been active in reserve duty before the war, and demonstrated military training and capabilities in extracting himself and his fellow hostages from........

© The Times of Israel