The Israeli army has published details on an investigation into its own murder of 15 Palestinian paramedical paramedics and humanitarian workers in Gaza last month, claiming that its code of ethics was not violated and that a single soldier is rejected, in an attack which triggered indignation in the international community.
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Israeli organization of rights breaking the silence rejected the conclusions of the Israeli investigation on Sunday.
The president of the PRCS told Al-Arabby TV that the Israeli story on the killings in Rafah was “contradictory”.
“It is incomprehensible why the soldiers of the occupation buried the bodies of paramedical paramedics in a criminal way,” said Younis al-Khatib.
Al -Khatib added that the Israeli army has communicated with paramedical paramedics before killing them and that evidence – including a video showing their flashing light ambulances – have proven “the falsehood of the narrative of the occupation concerning limited visibility on the site”.
“An independent and impartial investigation must be carried out by a United Nations body,” he said.
The PRCs, who had doctors killed by Israel during the incident, also denounced the Israeli report as “full of lies” on Sunday. “He is invalid and unacceptable, because he justifies murder and changes the responsibility for a personal error in the command of the field when the truth is very different,” said Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the AFP news agency.
The PRCS said last week that he had received confirmation from the Red Cross International Committee (ICRC) that one of his missing physicians is held by Israel.
🚨Urgent: We were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that the PRCS Medic Assad al-Asrah are held by the Israeli authorities of the occupation. His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted with other PRC doctors in #Rafah.
📢We call the … pic.twitter.com/l0ooxujs8g– PRCS (@palestinercs) April 13, 2025
The Israeli army said on Sunday that six of the humanitarian workers who had been killed and buried in a gradual grave of mass with their ambulances were “terrorists” of Hamas, without providing proof.
He admitted that his investigation detected a series of “professional failures”, including partial and inaccurate reports by commanders in the invasive field of Southern Gaza Rafah.
The assistant commander of the Golani recognition battalion will be rejected, while the commander of the 14th brigade must receive a reprimand.
The examination also revealed “no evidence to support allegations of execution or that one of the deceased was linked before or after the shooting”, despite testimonies and evidence.
The Israeli army initially said that ambulances and humanitarian workers were not clearly marked as the first stakeholders and approached its “suspicious” troops.
A mobile phone video recorded by one of the humanitarian workers who was obtained by the New York Times showed that the crew was clearly marked and visible for Israeli forces, and were killed by an Israeli fire that lasted several minutes.
The United Nations and Palestinian officials later found mass grave and ambulances and bulldozé bodies after the Israeli authorities granted access to the city of the city mainly destroyed by Rafah bordering Egypt.
‘Another day, another concealment’
The Israeli anti-occupation group breaking the silence said that the military investigation was “full of contradictions, the drilling of phrasing and selective details”.
“Not all lies have a video to exhibit it, but this report does not even try to engage in the truth,” said the group. “Another day, another concealment. More innocent lives taken, without responsibility.”
But votes of the far right in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believe that the army goes too far to punish the soldiers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ultra-nationalist Minister of National Security of Israel, said that the decision to reject the assistant commander was a “serious error” which was to be reversed.
“Our combat soldiers, who sacrifice their lives in Gaza, deserve our full support,” he said.
‘The report invites many questions’
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told Tel Aviv Tribune that the conclusions of the investigation raise issues on the conduct of the Israeli army in Gaza and the meticulousness of the investigation process.
“It is a fairly surprising document. It is also a document that invites many questions that it will be difficult, I suspect, for (Israeli soldiers) to answer,” said Nice in a television interview.
“For example, (there are) the proposal that six of these people were Hamas, probably members of Hamas on active (military) service, not people who could have been associated with Hamas in one way or another. No documentary evidence is identified (for this). ”
Israel has proven itself of refusal of accusations of reprehensible acts and to contradict its own previous declarations.
Past investigations have exempt the armed forces or put on a single individual without broader repercussions.
The United Nations accused the Israeli army of being responsible for the murder of the 15 humanitarian workers, as well as the murder of a member of the United Nations Bulgarian staff and injuries of six other foreign employees in Deir El-Balah de Gaza last month.
The organization was forced to considerably reduce its staff to Gaza while the number of war dead continues to rise.