Palestinian Red Crescent says Israel lying about Gaza medics’ killings

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has described an Israeli military report into a deadly attack on its paramedics as “full of lies”.

The Israeli military said in its report that “professional failures” led to the killing of the 15 workers in Gaza. It dismissed the deputy commander of the unit involved.

A spokeswoman for the PRCS said the report was “invalid” as it “justifies and shifts the responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different”.

Fourteen emergency workers and a UN worker were killed on 23 March after a convoy of PRCS ambulances, a UN car and a fire truck came under fire by the Israeli military.

The UN’s humanitarian chief in Gaza suggested the investigation did not go far enough. “A lack of real accountability undermines international law and makes the world a more dangerous place,” said Jonathan Whittall.

“Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfolding, and the norms designed to protect us all, eroding.”

The Red Crescent and several other international organisations have previously called for an independent investigation into the incident. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation was carried out by its Fact-Finding Mechanism, which it describes as impartial.

The IDF report said the incident took place in what it called a “hostile and dangerous combat zone”, and that the commander on the ground perceived an immediate and tangible threat after vehicles approached rapidly.

It blamed “poor night visibility”, which the IDF said meant the commander did not identify the vehicles as ambulances.

But it later said that account was “mistaken” after a video found on the mobile phone of a medic who was killed showed the vehicles with their lights on and their emergency signals flashing.

The footage shows the vehicles pulling up on the road when shooting begins just before dawn.

The video continues for more than five minutes, with the paramedic saying his last prayers before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching the vehicles.

It also shows the vehicles were clearly marked and the paramedics wearing reflective hi-vis uniform.

The bodies of the 15 dead workers were buried in sand. The report said this was done “to prevent further harm” and that the decision to do so “was reasonable under the circumstances”.

They were not recovered until a week after the incident because international agencies, including the UN, could not organise safe passage to the area or locate the spot.

Journalists invited to an Israeli military briefing on Sunday were shown aerial footage, shot in the early hours of 23 March, which showed the series of three attacks. It also showed that several other vehicles, including an ambulance, passed by in the hour or so between the first and second Israeli attack, without being shot at.

Israeli officials said this proved that troops in Gaza did not open fire on medical vehicles unless they felt threatened.

The IDF also confirmed it was holding a PRCS medic it had detained following the incident. They did not confirm his name, but the International Committee of the Red Cross has previously named him as Assad al-Nassasra.

Israel launched its campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 51,201 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.