Key points
- Israel killed fifteen humanitarian workers on March 23.
- The initial Israeli claims declared that humanitarian workers approached in vehicles without lights, which caused suspicions.
- The video images of the murders show that the vehicles were marked with lights on.
The Israeli army has provided new details that changed their initial account of the murder of 15 emergency workers near the city of Rafah de Gaza in southern Gaza last month, but said that the researchers were still examining the evidence.
The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow tomb where their bodies were found a week later by United Nations officials and the Palestinian red crescent.
Another man is still missing.
Initially, the military said the soldiers had opened fire against vehicles that approached their position “suspiciously” in the dark without lights or marks.
He said they killed nine Militants from Hamas and Islamic jihad traveling in Palestinian red crescent vehicles.
But the video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestine Red Crescent showed emergency workers in its clearly marked uniforms and ambulances and fire trucks, with the lights on, being fired by soldiers.
The only known survivor of the incident, the paramedic of the average average Palestine Red, Munther Abed, also said that he had seen soldiers opening fire in clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
Israel says that “the initial account is wrong”
An Israeli military official on Sunday said to the investigators that the researchers were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to the army commanders on Monday AEST.
He said that the initial report received from the field did not describe the lights, but that the researchers were looking for “operational information” and were trying to understand if this was due to an error of the person who made the initial report.
“What we currently understand is the person who gives the initial account is wrong. We are trying to understand why,” he said.
The Israeli media informed by the military reported that the troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups.
However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how identifications were made, saying that he did not want to share classified information.
“According to our information, there were terrorists there, but this investigation is not over,” said the Israeli military official to journalists in the informative session.
The UN Red Crescent and Palestine has demanded an independent investigation into the murder of paramedics.
Network Crescent officials and the UN said that 17 paramedics and emergency workers of Crescent, the Civil Emergency Service and the UN had been sent to respond to the reports of lesions of Israeli air attacks.
Apart from Abed, who was arrested for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.
The UN said last week that the available information indicated that a team was killed by Israeli forces and other emergency crews and help were killed one after another for several hours while looking for their missing colleagues.
Palestine red crescent spokesman Nebal Farsakh said: “We need justice for victims and we must ensure that all those responsible are accounts.”
“Without this, the crimes will continue to happen.”
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), 408 humanitarian workers, including more than 280 UNRWA employees, have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Fountain: Getty / ABDALLAH FS ALATTAR / ANATOLIA
The military official said that the initial results of the investigation showed that the troops had opened fire against a vehicle at 4 in the 4 am morning, killing two members of the internal security forces of Hamas and taking another prisoner, who the official said he had admitted under the interrogation of being in Hamas.
With the passage of time, several vehicles passed along the road until, around 6 in the morning, he said that the troops received news from the air surveillance to which a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching.
“They feel that this is another incident like what happened at 4 am [local time] And they opened fire, “said the official.
He said that the aerial surveillance images showed that the troops were at a distance when they opened fire, and denied the reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and fired them at a short distance.
He said that the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying at least some of them as militants. However, he did not explain what evidence the evaluation had caused.
He said that the troops had informed the UN of the incident the same day and initially covered the bodies with a camouflage network until they could recover.
“There were no incidents where IDF [Israel Defense Forces] I tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately. ”
Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to prevent the animals from arriving, the official said.
He said the vehicles were expelled by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road, but could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.
The UN confirmed last week that it had been informed of the location of the bodies, but that Israel denied access to the area for several days. He said the bodies had been buried next to their crushed vehicles, clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck and a UN car.
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