The Israeli military, in which 15 Palestinian medical personnel were killed by its troops last month, appeared to contradict the claim that its vehicles had no emergency signals when they opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip.
The military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles “suspiciously” advanced towards nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official said “error” on conditions consistent with the regulations under anonymity late Saturday.
Video shows the Red Crescent and the Civil Defense team flashing with the lights of the emergency vehicles, and the logos are visible, and they pull up to help the ambulance that was slammed earlier. With three medical staff emerging and heading towards the ambulances that hit, the teams did not appear to show in a threatening way.
Their vehicle was immediately bounced off for more than five minutes. The owner of the phone can be heard praying.
“Please forgive me, mom. This is my choice, mom, help people.” He cried, his voice weak.
In the pre-dawn shooting on March 23, Israeli troops operating in an area of Rafa, a southern city in southern Gaza, were killed eight Red Crescent personnel, six civil defense personnel and one UN staff member in the pre-dawn shooting. The troops then sold the corpse and buried it in a large-scale grave. The United Nations and rescue workers can only arrive at the scene in one week to excavate the bodies.
Marwan Jilani, vice president of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said the phone with the video was found in the pockets of one of his killed employees. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations circulated the video to the UN Security Council. The Associated Press obtained the video from UN diplomats on anonymity because it has not been made public.
A healthcare worker who survived Munzer Abed confirmed the authenticity of the video to the Associated Press. Two block concrete structures visible in the video can also be seen in the United Nations video released on Sunday, showing the bodies recovered from the scene – a sign that they are in the same location.
When asked about the video, the Israeli military said on Saturday that the incident was “completely inspected.”
Younes al-Khatib, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, called for an independent investigation. “We don’t trust any Army investigations,” he said in a UN briefing Friday.
The Red Moon Society said that a doctor, Assaad al-Nassasra, is still missing. Abed said he saw al-nassasra blindfolded by Israeli forces. Al-Khatib said the group had asked the military to hold the staff.
Al-Khatib said the murdered man was “targeted at close range” and the forensic autopsy report will be released soon.
Israel accused Hamas of moving and hiding its fighters in ambulances and emergency vehicles, as well as hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, arguing that this proved a strike against them. Medical staff largely deny the allegations.
According to the Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents, the Israeli strike has killed more than 150 emergency personnel from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense, most of whom are on duty and more than 1,000 health workers.
Gillani said the ambulance started to travel to Tel al-Sultan around 3:50 a.m. on March 23 in response to reports of injuries. He said at least one casualty in the first ambulance returned safely. However, he said the ambulance was subsequently criticized.
Abed told the Associated Press on Saturday that his hands were shaking and its sirens lights were on when his ambulance entered the area. “Suddenly, I’ll tell you, there’s a direct shot at us,” he said.
Abed, a 10-year veteran of the Red Crescent, said he sat in the back seat and hid on the floor. He said his two colleagues in the front seats could not see anything – the only other person in the car. They seemed to be killed immediately.
He said Israeli troops had some night goggles, dragged them out of the ambulance and to the ground. He said they pulled him out of his underwear, beat him with his rifle ass, and tied his hands behind him.
He said they asked him about his paramedic training and the people who were in the ambulance with him. A soldier pressed the muzzle of the automatic rifle into his neck. Another pressed his knife into Abed’s palm, almost cutting it open until a third soldier pulled them apart and warned Abed: “They’re crazy.”
Abed said he witnessed them firing when the next car arrived. He said the soldiers forced him into the stomach, pressed the gun on his back, and shot him in the dark, so he could only see two civil defense vehicles.
Telephone video shows that after contacting the disaster-affected ambulance, the rescue convoy of Red Crescent and Civil Defense vehicles was rescued. It took off from the dashboard of a car and showed several ambulances, a fire truck moving along the road from barren areas in the dark. The emergency lights on their roofs were flashing.
They arrived at an ambulance on the side of the road and parked next to them, their lights still flashing. No Israeli troops are visible.
“Lord, let them be fine,” said a man in the car. Then he shouted, “They were thrown to the ground!” – obviously referring to the body. Three men in orange civil defense costumes can be seen walking out of the vehicle and heading towards the parking ambulance.
The shooting rang, and one of the men seemed to have fallen. Gunshots broke out.
The man with his phone seemed to climb out of the car and on the ground, but the screen turned black, although the audio continued. The gunshot lasted nearly five and a half minutes, a long, heavy barrage, followed by silence, being shot alone, shouting and screaming.
Throughout the process, the person with the phone said over and over again: “There is no God, but God and Muhammad are God’s prophets” – what Muslims say about their faith profession when they fear they will die. At the end of the six-minute, 40-second video, the sound of yelling in Hebrew can be heard. The man said, referring to Israeli soldiers before the video was cut off, “The Jews are here.”
Israeli military officials asserted that there was no abuse and said he had no idea why the vehicles were buried. He has no information about the doctor who is still missing.
Israeli military said after the shooting, troops determined that they had killed a Hamas figure named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other militants. However, none of the 15 killed medical staff did not have this name and no other bodies were found at the scene.
The military did not say what happened to Shobaki’s body, nor did it release the names of other so-called militants. Israeli military officials said Israel is “working to present evidence” that Hamas agents were killed.
Jonathan Whittall, interim head of Gaza at Ocha, the United Nations Humanitarian Office, dismissed allegations that the murdered medical staff was a Hamas militant, saying employees had worked with the same medical staff to evacuate hospitals and other missions.
“These are paramedics I personally have seen before,” he said. “They were buried in uniforms wearing gloves. They were ready to save lives.”
