By Edith M. Lederer, Wafaa Shurafa and Lee Keath | Related Press
UNITED NATIONS — Cellphone video from one among 15 Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces final month seems to contradict Israeli claims that the medics’ autos didn’t have emergency alerts on when troops opened fireplace on them in southern Gaza.
The footage exhibits the Purple Crescent and Civil Protection groups driving slowly with their emergency autos’ lights flashing, logos seen, as they pulled as much as assist an ambulance that had come underneath fireplace earlier. The groups don’t look like appearing unusually or in a threatening method as three medics emerge and head towards the stricken ambulance.
Their autos instantly come underneath a barrage of gunfire, which fits on for greater than 5 minutes with temporary pauses. The proprietor of the telephone will be heard praying.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.
Eight Purple Crescent personnel, six Civil Protection employees and a U.N. staffer have been killed within the taking pictures earlier than daybreak on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the our bodies together with their mangled autos, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue employees have been solely in a position to attain the location per week later to dig out the our bodies.
The Palestinian Purple Crescent Society’s vice chairman, Marwan Jilani, stated the telephone with the footage was discovered within the pocket of one among its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the U.N. Safety Council. The Related Press obtained the video from a U.N. diplomat on situation of anonymity as a result of it has not been made public.
One paramedic who survived, Munzer Abed, confirmed the veracity of the video to the AP. Two block-shaped concrete buildings seen within the video are additionally seen in a U.N. video launched Sunday exhibiting the restoration of the our bodies from the location — an indication they’re in the identical location.
Requested concerning the video, the Israeli army stated Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination.” It stated “all claims, including the documentation circulating about the incident, will be thoroughly and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and the handling of the situation.”
One medic stays lacking
The Israeli army earlier stated it opened fireplace on the autos as a result of they have been “advancing suspiciously” on close by troops with out headlights or emergency alerts.
The top of the Palestinian Purple Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, referred to as for an impartial investigation. “We don’t trust any of the army investigations,” he instructed a briefing on the U.N. on Friday.
One medic, Assaad al-Nassasra, remains to be lacking, the Purple Crescent says. Abed stated he noticed al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. Al-Khatib stated the group has requested the army the place it’s holding the staffer.
Al-Khatib stated the slain males had been “targeted at close range” and {that a} forensic post-mortem report could be launched quickly.
Israel has accused Hamas of shifting and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency autos, in addition to in hospitals and different civilian infrastructure, arguing that justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.
Israeli strikes have killed greater than 150 emergency responders from the Purple Crescent and Civil Protection, most of them whereas on responsibility, in addition to over 1,000 well being employees, in keeping with the U.N. The Israeli army hardly ever investigates such incidents.
Ambulances underneath a barrage of Israeli fireplace
Ambulances began heading to Tel al-Sultan at round 3:50 a.m. on March 23, responding to reviews of wounded, Jilani stated. The primary ambulance returned safely with a minimum of one casualty, he stated. However, he stated, subsequent ambulances got here underneath fireplace.
His arms trembling, Abed instructed the AP on Saturday that as his ambulance entered the world, its siren lights have been on. “All of a sudden, I am telling you, there was direct shooting at us,” so intense that the car floor to a cease, he stated.
A ten-year veteran of the Purple Crescent, Abed stated he was sitting within the again seat and ducked to the ground. He stated he may hear nothing from his two colleagues within the entrance seat — the one others within the car. They seem to have been killed immediately.
Israeli troops, some with evening goggles, dragged Abed out the ambulance door and onto the bottom, he stated. They made him strip to his underwear, beat him throughout his physique with their rifle butts, then tied his arms behind his again, he stated.
They interrogated him, asking him about his paramedic coaching and the way many individuals have been within the ambulance with him, he stated. One soldier pressed the muzzle of his automated rifle into his neck; one other pressed his knife blade into Abed’s palm, virtually slicing it, till a 3rd soldier pulled them away and warned Abed, “They’re crazy.”
Abed stated he witnessed them opening fireplace on the following autos to reach. Troopers compelled him onto his abdomen and pressed a gun into his again, he stated, and amid the taking pictures within the darkness, so he may solely see two Civil Protection autos.
Video exhibits medic’s terror
The telephone video exhibits a rescue convoy of Purple Crescent of Civil Protection autos that was despatched out after contact was misplaced with the stricken ambulance. Taken from the dashboard of 1 car, it exhibits a number of ambulances and a hearth truck shifting down a highway by means of a barren space within the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs are flashing the whole means.
They arrive at an ambulance on the aspect of the highway and cease subsequent to it, their lights nonetheless flashing. No Israeli troops are seen.
“Lord, let them be OK,” a person within the automotive says. Then he cries out, “They’re tossed around on the ground!” — apparently referring to our bodies. Three males in orange Civil Protection clothes will be seen getting out of the autos and strolling towards the stopped ambulance.
A shot rings out and one of many males seems to fall. Gunfire erupts.
The person holding the telephone seems to scramble out of the automotive and onto the bottom, however then the display screen goes black, although the audio continues. The gunfire goes on for almost 5 and a half minutes — with lengthy, heavy barrages adopted by silences punctuated by particular person photographs and shouts and screams.
All through, the person with the telephone says time and again, “There is no God but God and Muhammad is God’s prophet” — the occupation of religion that Muslims say once they worry they’re about to die. Close to the tip of the six-minute, 40-second video, voices will be heard shouting in Hebrew. “The Jews are coming,” the person stated, referring to Israeli troopers, earlier than the video cuts off.
Israel claims they discovered militants afterward
The Israeli army says that after the taking pictures, troops decided that they had killed a Hamas determine named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight different militants. Nonetheless, not one of the 15 slain medics has that identify, and no different our bodies are recognized to have been discovered on the web site, elevating questions over the army’s claims they have been within the autos.
The army has not stated what occurred to Shobaki’s physique or launched the names of the opposite alleged militants.
Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the U.N. humanitarian workplace OCHA, dismissed allegations that the slain medics have been Hamas militants, saying humanitarian workers had labored with the identical medics beforehand in evacuating sufferers from hospitals and different duties.
“These are paramedic crews that I personally have met before,” he stated. “They were buried in their uniforms with their gloves on. They were ready to save lives.”
Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Keath from Cairo. AP reporters Farnoush Amiri on the United Nations, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Areej Hazboun contributed to this report.
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Initially Printed: April 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM PDT
