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The Israeli military on Sunday admitted “professional failures” in the killings of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza last month, with a field commander to be fired after an investigation.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six civil defence workers and a member of UN staff were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli troops in Tel Al Sultan in Rafah. The killings drew international condemnation as UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher demanded “answers and justice”.
Israel at first claimed that the medics' vehicles did not have their emergency lights on when troops opened fire. But it had to correct itself when video recovered from one of the victim's phones, taken under fire, showed Israel’s initial account did not stand up to scrutiny.
Troops bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies. The head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society said the victims were shot at close range.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said an investigation had found that a deputy battalion commander believed the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants “due to poor night visibility”.
“Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire. Fifteen Palestinians were killed, six of whom were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists,” the Israeli investigation found.
The Israeli military did not support its claims about the six with evidence.
“Due to poor night visibility, the deputy commander did not initially recognise the vehicles as ambulances. Only later, after approaching the vehicles and scanning them, was it discovered that these were indeed rescue teams,” it said.
The Israeli investigation said the Palestinians were killed due to an “operational misunderstanding” by Israeli troops, and that a separate incident 15 minutes later, when Israeli soldiers shot at a Palestinian UN vehicle, was a breach of orders.
It said the decision to crush the ambulances was wrong, but denied that there was an attempt to conceal the event by its personnel after the mass shooting of medical workers. “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.
The deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion will be dismissed from his position “due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”, the Israeli military said.
“Yes, we do make mistakes,” military spokesman Effie Defrin told reporters. He said the incident took place in a “complex combat zone”.
Video obtained from the incident shows the ambulances had lights flashing and ambulance/civil defence livery visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier. The teams did not appear to be acting in a threatening manner as three medics emerged and headed toward the stricken ambulance.
Their vehicles immediately came under a barrage of gunfire that went on for more than five minutes with brief pauses.
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 this justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Palestinian civil defence, most of them while on duty, as well as more than 1,000 health workers, according to the UN. 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 last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant on allegations 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 Mr Netanyahu has accused the ICC of anti-Semitism.
