The Israeli army described its murder of 15 emergencies in Gaza and buried them as well as their vehicles as a “professional error”.
The bodies of 14 humanitarian workers were found in a mass tomb with their crushed vehicles a week after being in Israeli fire at the end of March. A body had been found a few days before.
The army said that it had “wrapped” the fabric and sand bodies to protect them until humanitarian organizations can recover them.
Israel had blocked access to the site for days, later insisting that it was not an attempt to conceal the attack.
Here is what you need to know about the attack, the statements of Israel and how the investigation accumulates against other evidence:
What happened to emergency workers and vehicles in Gaza?
- March 23: Around 4 am (01:00 GMT), an ambulance of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was sent to join a earlier helping people injured during an Israeli air strike in the Al-Hashaashin region of Rafah.
- The contact was lost with it, and the first ambulance returned to find it around 5 a.m. Paramedical paramedics have struck down by radio that they could see victims on the ground on the way to Tal As-Sultan, another area in the south of Gaza.
- Two other ambulances were sent with a fire truck and other emergency vehicles. They are noted under Israeli shots for more than five minutes. A few minutes later, soldiers also shot a United Nations car that stopped on the scene. The PRCs have lost contact with his team.
- March 24: The Israeli army has blocked access to the attacks site.
- March 27-28: United Nations and Palestinian officials have limited access to the region, recovering the vehicles and bodies of a member of the Civil Defense of Gaza.
- March 30: The bodies of five stakeholders in the Civil Defense, a UN employee and eight PRC workers are found in a shallow tomb. A ninth worker of the PRCS, Assaad al-Nassasra, is held by Israel, confirmed the PRCs later. In total, Israel killed 15 emergencies in the attack.
What shows video evidence?
A video found on the phone of the paramedical paramedics Rifaat Radwan shows the team’s latest moments.
The video, filmed from the inside of one of the last two ambulances to leave, shows a fire truck and ambulances in advance throughout the night.
All vehicles have been clearly identified with flashing emergency lights.
The vehicles stopped when they see an ambulance and bodies by the side of the road, and the first stakeholders in reflective uniforms come out of the vehicles. A few moments later, intense shots burst out.
As the shots continue, Radwan can be heard asking for his mother and reciting the Islamic declaration of the faith, the Shahada, before dying.
What does the Israeli investigation say?
After an examination, the Israeli army described murders as “professional failures” and a “misunderstanding”. No one has been charged.
He rejected an assistant commander to “provide an incomplete report” and reprimanded a commander.
Major-general Yoav Har-Even, who has examined, said two stakeholders had been killed in an initial incident, 12 people were killed in a second shooting and that another person was killed in a third incident.
“The fire in the first two incidents resulted from an operational misunderstanding of the troops, who thought they had faced a tangible threat of enemy forces. The third incident involved a violation of orders during a fighting frame,” the military statement said.
The troops bulldozer the bodies and their mutilated vehicles, but the investigation said that it was not an attempt to hide the attack.
The body of the lawyer general general, intended to be an independent organization under the general prosecutor and the Supreme Court of Israel, can now decide to file a civil complaint.
How did Israel explain the shooting of ambulances?
The investigation report said the soldiers had not recognized the ambulances due to “poor night visibility” and because the flashing lights are less visible on drones and night vision glasses.
He also blamed the assistant commander now dissected, saying that he wrongly thought that the ambulance was used by Hamas and opened fire first.
Israel has tried to justify previous attacks on protected entities by saying that Hamas is hiding among civilians and uses ambulances to carry out operations.
Har same told journalists that one of the humanitarian workers on the scene had been questioned about the alleged ties of Hamas. The man, Munther Abed, was released the next day.
Before the attack video was found, the Israeli army said that ambulances had “advanced suspicion” its soldiers “without headlights or emergency signals”.
How did Israel explain doctors in shooting uniform?
The first stakeholders were “in their uniforms, still carrying gloves” when they were killed, said Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Bureau for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestinian territory.
The spokesman for the Civil Defense of Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, said that several team members had been found with their hands and their feet linked and that the balls and torso, indicating that they were executed at close range after being identified as a humanitarian workers.
Without offering evidence, the Israeli investigation report said that six of the people killed were “members of Hamas” although no Palestinian fighter was found in the grave of mass.
Har same told journalists that no ambulancer was armed and that no weapon had been found in any vehicle.
An Israeli military official said that the bodies had been covered with “sand and fabric” to preserve them until their recovery can be coordinated with international organizations.
The army also said that it had not found “no evidence in support of allegations of execution” and “such claims are blood defamations and false accusations against (Israeli) soldiers”.
To what extent is Israel investigating itself?
Human rights groups and international legal experts have said that Israeli self-assessment evaluations often lacked independence and transparency.
Israel said that he is examining the conduct of his soldiers through internal probes led by his military defender, who decides to pursue criminal investigations.
But the soldiers have made a history of refusal of the reprehensible acts, to contradict themselves or to blame the individuals of low rank without broader repercussions for the armed forces.
In 2022, he said that Tel Aviv Tribune Shireen Abu Akleh journalist was killed by a Palestinian fire until several investigations with the media demystified him. Israel later admitted that it may have killed him “accidentally” but excluded a criminal investigation.
In January, the main prosecutor of the International Criminal Court defended the request for arrest terms against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, citing the non-compliance with Israel to truly investigate the allegations of war crimes.
How did the criticisms responded?
The PRCs and the organization of Israeli rights breaking the silence rejected the conclusions of the Israeli investigation.
“It is incomprehensible why the soldiers of the occupation buried the bodies of paramedical paramedics,” said the president of the PRC, Younis al-Khatib, in Al Arabby TV.
He said that evidence such as the video has proven “the lie of the narrative of the occupation”, adding that The Israeli army has communicated with paramedical paramedics before killing them.