Video footage seems to contradict Israeli account of Gaza medic killings

Cell phone footage has emerged that seems to contradict Israel’s account of why troopers opened hearth on a convoy of ambulances and a hearth truck on March 23, killing 15 rescue employees.

The video, printed by the Palestine Pink Crescent Society (PRCS), exhibits the autos transferring in darkness with headlights and emergency flashing lights switched on – earlier than coming beneath hearth. The PRCS stated the video was obtained from the cellphone of a paramedic who was killed.

The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) initially denied the autos had their headlights or emergency indicators on.

However in response to the brand new video, the IDF advised the BBC: “All claims, together with the documentation circulating concerning the incident, will likely be completely and deeply examined to know the sequence of occasions and the dealing with of the scenario”.

A surviving paramedic beforehand advised the BBC that the ambulances have been clearly marked and had their inside and exterior lights on.

The most recent video, which the PRCS stated had been proven to the UN Safety Council, exhibits the marked autos drawing to a halt on the sting of the street, lights nonetheless flashing, and at the least two emergency employees stepping out sporting reflective clothes.

The windscreen of the automobile being filmed from is cracked and capturing can then be heard lasting for a number of minutes because the particular person filming says prayers. He’s understood to be one of many lifeless paramedics.

The footage was discovered on his cellphone after his physique was recovered from a shallow grave one week after the incident. The our bodies of the eight paramedics, six Gaza Civil Defence employees and one UN worker have been discovered buried in sand, together with their wrecked autos. It took worldwide organisations days to barter secure entry to the location.

Israel claimed quite a lot of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been killed within the incident, but it surely has not offered any proof or additional defined the menace to its troops.

Israel’s Overseas Minister Gideon Saar earlier this week echoed the military account, saying “the IDF didn’t randomly assault an ambulance”.

The IDF promised to research the circumstances after a surviving paramedic questioned its account.

In an interview with the BBC, paramedic Munther Abed stated: “Throughout day and at evening, it is the identical factor. Exterior and inside lights are on. Every thing tells you it is an ambulance automobile that belongs to the Palestinian Pink Crescent. All lights have been on till the automobile got here beneath direct hearth.”

He additionally denied he or his staff had any militant connections.

“All crews are civilian. We do not belong to any militant group. Our important obligation is to supply ambulance companies and save folks’s lives. No extra, no much less,” he stated.

Talking on the United Nations yesterday the President of the PRCS, Dr Younis Al-Khatib, referred to the video recording, saying: “I heard the voice of a kind of staff members who was killed. His final phrases earlier than being shot…’forgive me mum, I simply needed to assist folks. I needed to save lots of lives’. It is heartbreaking”.

He referred to as for “accountability” and “an “impartial and thorough investigation” of what he referred to as an “atrocious crime”.

One paramedic continues to be unaccounted for following the 23 March incident.