Following its own investigation into last month’s incident, Israel says a deputy commander will be sacked, after it backtracked on initial claims that medics’ vehicles had no emergency signals
An Israeli probe into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces said on Sunday it found “professional failures” and that a deputy commander will be fired.
Israel at first claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked. Mobile phone video recovered from one of the medics contradicted Israel’s initial account.
The military investigation found that the deputy battalion commander, “due to poor night visibility,” assessed that the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants. Video footage obtained from the incident shows the ambulances had lights flashing and logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier.
The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance. Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire that goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a United Nations staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said the slain men were “targeted at close range.” The Israeli military investigation said the Palestinians were killed due to an “operational misunderstanding” by Israeli forces, and that a separate incident 15 minutes later, when Israeli soldiers shot at a Palestinian U.N. vehicle, was a breach of orders.
It was not immediately clear whether the military investigation found that any of those killed were Hamas militants. Israel’s military initially said nine were militants. The investigation found that the decision to crush the ambulances was wrong but denied that there was an attempt to conceal the event.
“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” it added.
Israel has accused Hamas of moving and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency vehicles, as well as in hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, arguing that justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense, most of them while on duty, as well as over 1,000 health workers, according to the U.N. The Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents.
Palestinians and international human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel’s military of failing to properly investigate or whitewashing misconduct by its troops.
The International Criminal Court, established by the international community as a court of last resort, has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes. Israel, which is not a member of the court, has long asserted that its legal system is capable of investigating the army, and Netanyahu has accused the ICC of antisemitism.
Meanwhile, people in Gaza say they are equally afraid of dying from famine as they are airstrikes, as Israel’s seven-week-long military blockade to the strip continued. It has seen all aid cut off to the strip after Israel abandoned a two-month ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas on March 2, before resuming bombing two weeks later.
Israel says aid deliveries will not resume until Hamas releases the remaining hostages taken during the October 7 2023 attacks which sparked the conflict.
Hikmat al-Masri, a 44-year-old university lecturer from Beit Lahia in north Gaza, told the Observer: “Many times, I have had to give up my share of food for my son because of the shortages. It is the hunger that will kill me – a slow death.”
Food stockpiled during the two-month ceasefire has reportedly run out and goods at markets are now selling for 1,400% above ceasefire prices, according to the latest assessment from the World Health Organization. While Oxfam estimates that most children are now surviving on less than one meal a day.
About 95% of aid organisations have suspended or cut back services because of airstrikes and the blockade, and since February, Israel has tightened restrictions for international staff to enter Gaza. Basic medical supplies – even painkillers – are said to be running out.
In a statement in response to the aid worker’s allegations, the IDF said: “Hamas has a documented practice of operating within densely populated areas.
“Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including taking feasible precautions.”