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, killing 15 rescue workers.
The video printed by the New York Instances, and stated to have been filmed by a Palestine Pink Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic who was killed, reveals the automobiles transferring in darkness with headlights and emergency flashing lights switched on early on the morning of 23 March – earlier than coming underneath hearth.
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) preliminary assertion stated “a number of uncoordinated automobiles have been recognized advancing suspiciously towards IDF troops with out headlights or emergency indicators. IDF troops then opened hearth on the suspected automobiles.”
A surviving paramedic beforehand told the BBC that the ambulances have been clearly marked and had their inside and exterior lights on.
The IDF has been approached for remark in regards to the video, which the PRCS stated had been proven to the UN Safety Council.
The video reveals the marked automobiles drawing to a halt on the sting of the highway, lights nonetheless flashing, and at the very least two emergency employees stepping out carrying 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 telephone 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 automobiles. It took worldwide organisations days to barter secure entry to the location.
Israel claimed various Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been killed within the incident, nevertheless it has not supplied any proof or additional defined the menace to its troops.
Israel’s International Minister Gideon Saar earlier this week echoed the military account, saying “the IDF didn’t randomly assault an ambulance”.
The IDF promised to analyze the circumstances after a surviving paramedic questioned its account.
In an interview with the BBC, paramedic Munther Abed said: “Throughout day and at night time, it is the identical factor. Exterior and inside lights are on. The whole lot tells you it is an ambulance automobile that belongs to the Palestinian Pink Crescent. All lights have been on till the automobile got here underneath direct hearth.”
He additionally denied he or his workforce had any militant connections.
“All crews are civilian. We do not belong to any militant group. Our most important obligation is to supply ambulance companies and save individuals’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 type of workforce members who was killed. His final phrases earlier than being shot…’forgive me mum, I simply wished to assist individuals. I wished to avoid wasting 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.
