Israel Retracts Claim Of Killed Gaza Medics After Footage Contradicts It

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Israeli army backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces final month after telephone video appeared to contradict its claims that their automobiles didn’t have emergency indicators on when troops opened fireplace on them in the Gaza Strip.

The army initially stated it opened fireplace as a result of the automobiles had been “advancing suspiciously” on close by troops with out headlights or emergency indicators. An Israeli army official, talking late Saturday on situation of anonymity in keeping with rules, stated that account was “mistaken.”

The footage exhibits the Purple Crescent and Civil Protection groups driving slowly with their emergency automobiles’ lights flashing, logos seen, as they pulled as much as assist an ambulance that had come below fireplace earlier. The groups don’t look like appearing unusually or in a threatening method as three medics emerge and head towards the stricken ambulance.

Their automobiles instantly come below a barrage of gunfire, which matches on for greater than 5 minutes with transient pauses. The proprietor of the telephone may be heard praying.

“Forgive me, mom. That is the trail I selected, mom, to assist individuals,” he cries, his voice weak.

Eight Purple Crescent personnel, six Civil Protection employees and a U.N. staffer had been killed within the capturing earlier than daybreak on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the our bodies together with their mangled automobiles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue employees had been solely in a position to attain the positioning per week later to dig out the our bodies.

The Palestinian Purple Crescent Society’s vp, Marwan Jilani, stated the telephone with the footage was discovered within the pocket of one in all its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the U.N. Safety Council. The Related Press obtained the video from a U.N. diplomat on situation of anonymity as a result of it has not been made public.

One paramedic who survived, Munzer Abed, confirmed the veracity of the video to the AP. Two block-shaped concrete constructions seen within the video are additionally seen in a U.N. video launched Sunday exhibiting the restoration of the our bodies from the positioning — an indication they’re in the identical location.

Requested concerning the video, the Israeli army stated Saturday that the incident was “below thorough examination.”

The pinnacle of the Palestinian Purple Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, referred to as for an impartial investigation. “We don’t belief any of the military investigations,” he instructed a briefing on the U.N. on Friday.

One medic, Assaad al-Nassasra, remains to be lacking, the Purple Crescent says. Abed stated he noticed al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. Al-Khatib stated the group has requested the army the place it’s holding the staffer.

Al-Khatib stated the slain males had been “focused at shut vary” and {that a} forensic post-mortem report can be launched quickly.

Israel has accused Hamas of shifting and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency automobiles, in addition to in hospitals and different civilian infrastructure, arguing that justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.

Israeli strikes have killed greater than 150 emergency responders from the Purple Crescent and Civil Protection, most of them whereas on obligation, in addition to over 1,000 well being employees, in keeping with the U.N. The Israeli army hardly ever investigates such incidents.

Ambulances began heading to Tel al-Sultan at round 3:50 a.m. on March 23, responding to reviews of wounded, Jilani stated. The primary ambulance returned safely with a minimum of one casualty, he stated. However, he stated, subsequent ambulances got here below fireplace.

His arms trembling, Abed instructed the AP on Saturday that as his ambulance entered the realm, its siren lights had been on. “Unexpectedly, I’m telling you, there was direct capturing at us,” so intense that the car floor to a cease, he stated.

A ten-year veteran of the Purple Crescent, Abed stated he was sitting within the again seat and ducked to the ground. He stated he may hear nothing from his two colleagues within the entrance seat — the one others within the car. They seem to have been killed immediately.

Israeli troops, some with evening goggles, dragged Abed out of the ambulance and onto the bottom, he stated. They made him strip to his underwear, beat him throughout his physique with their rifle butts, then tied his arms behind his again, he stated.

They interrogated him, asking him about his paramedic coaching and the way many individuals had been within the ambulance with him, he stated. One soldier pressed the muzzle of his computerized rifle into his neck. One other pressed his knife blade into Abed’s palm, virtually slicing it, till a 3rd soldier pulled them away and warned Abed, “They’re loopy.”

Abed stated he witnessed them opening fireplace on the subsequent automobiles to reach. Troopers compelled him onto his abdomen and pressed a gun into his again, he stated, and amid the capturing within the darkness, so he may solely see two Civil Protection automobiles.

The telephone video exhibits a rescue convoy of Purple Crescent and Civil Protection automobiles that was despatched out after contact was misplaced with the stricken ambulance. Taken from the dashboard of 1 car, it exhibits a number of ambulances and a fireplace truck shifting down a highway via a barren space within the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs are flashing your complete means.

They arrive at an ambulance on the aspect of the highway and cease subsequent to it, their lights nonetheless flashing. No Israeli troops are seen.

“Lord, allow them to be OK,” a person within the automobile says. Then he cries out, “They’re tossed round on the bottom!” — apparently referring to our bodies. Three males in orange Civil Protection clothes may be seen getting out of the automobiles and strolling towards the stopped ambulance.

A shot rings out and one of many males seems to fall. Gunfire erupts.

The person holding the telephone seems to scramble out of the automobile and onto the bottom, however the display goes black, although the audio continues. The gunfire goes on for almost 5 and a half minutes, with lengthy, heavy barrages adopted by silences punctuated by particular person photographs and shouts and screams.

All through, the person with the telephone says again and again, “There is no such thing as a God however God and Muhammad is God’s prophet” — the occupation of religion that Muslims say once they concern they’re about to die. Close to the top of the six-minute, 40-second video, voices may be heard shouting in Hebrew. “The Jews are coming,” the person stated, referring to Israeli troopers, earlier than the video cuts off.

The Israeli army official asserted there was “no mistreatment,” and stated he didn’t know why the automobiles had been buried. He had no details about the medic who remained lacking.

The Israeli army says that after the capturing, troops decided they’d killed a Hamas determine named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight different militants. Nevertheless, not one of the 15 slain medics has that title, and no different our bodies are recognized to have been discovered on the website.

The army has not stated what occurred to Shobaki’s physique or launched the names of the opposite alleged militants. The Israeli army official stated Israel was “working to carry proof” that Hamas operatives had been killed.

Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the U.N. humanitarian workplace OCHA, dismissed allegations that the slain medics had been Hamas militants, saying workers had labored with the identical medics beforehand in evacuating sufferers from hospitals and different duties.

“These are paramedic crews that I personally have met earlier than,” he stated. “They had been buried of their uniforms with their gloves on. They had been prepared to save lots of lives.”

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Keath from Cairo. Related Press writers Farnoush Amiri on the United Nations, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Areej Hazboun contributed to this report.