An investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into the incident that occurred on 23 March found the deaths of the aid workers were a result of an “operational misunderstanding”. A commanding officer is to be reprimanded and a deputy commander to be dismissed, the military said.
The International Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years. Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a UN employee were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on emergency vehicles in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Footage showed the convoy of vehicles, with lights flashing and logos visible, pulling up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier – before the vehicles came under a barrage of gunfire that lasted more than five minutes.
Israel first claimed the medics' vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked after the footage emerged from a dead medic’s phone.
The Israeli military’s
investigation found the deputy battalion commander assessed that the ambulances
belonged to Hamas militants “due to poor night visibility”.
The soldiers then bulldozed over the bodies along with their vehicles, burying them in a mass grave before they were later discovered by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society had claimed the killed medics were “targeted at close range”. Night-vision drone footage provided by the military shows soldiers were 20 to 30 metres away from the ambulances.
The Israel initially said nine of the 15 medics were Hamas militants. But as part of its investigation, the military now says, without providing evidence, that six of them were "Hamas terrorists". Hamas has rejected the accusation The Israeli military has admitted “professional failures” and “breaches of orders” after soldiers killed 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza last month.
No comments:
Post a Comment