Freed Israeli hostages erupted in anger during a tense meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that they were terrified they would be killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza instead of their Hamas captors.
“We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you,” the woman from the southern Israeli village of Nir Oz near the Gaza border said
The IDF has a public policy not to allow hostage-taking and even killing the hostage if necessary. It’s controversial but not a new policy.
The link you gave said this was a military policy used.on military, not civilians.
It also appears they stopped doing it a decade ago, according to your source.
If you read the link there’s a controversy on whether they stopped at all. Many of the families of hostages and the released hostages have accused the Israeli government of trying to kill them.