The Palestine Pink Crescent Society on Monday gave new particulars of the Israeli assault on its paramedics and different emergency responders within the Gaza Strip that killed at the least 15 folks final month, saying Israeli forces had focused them in a “sequence of deliberate assaults.”
Talking at a news conference within the West Financial institution, Pink Crescent officers mentioned Israeli troops shot at the rescue workers in waves over a two-hour interval earlier than daybreak on March 23. They termed the killings “a full-fledged warfare crime” and referred to as on the United Nations Safety Council and the worldwide neighborhood to demand accountability and an impartial investigation.
The Israeli navy, which has admitted to killing the 15 males, mentioned on Monday {that a} “preliminary inquiry indicated that the troops opened hearth on account of a perceived risk following a earlier encounter within the space,” and it might proceed investigating. It mentioned that six of these killed “have been recognized as Hamas terrorists,” however cited no proof.
The Pink Crescent and the United Nations have mentioned that the lifeless have been unarmed help staff who posed no risk. They mentioned the boys have been carrying their uniforms and using in clearly marked emergency autos, flashing their emergency lights.
An Israeli navy official who briefed reporters on the incident on Saturday declined to say whether or not the boys have been armed.
Additionally on Monday, an Israeli strike close to a hospital in southern Gaza killed two folks, together with a journalist for the Palestine At the moment information company, bringing the variety of Palestinian journalists killed within the warfare to 210, Gaza’s authorities press workplace mentioned. It mentioned the strike additionally wounded 9 journalists, together with Hassan Aslih, well-known for documenting the warfare for a whole bunch of 1000’s of social media followers.
Israel’s navy mentioned Mr. Aslih was its goal. With out citing proof, it referred to as him a Hamas militant who participated within the Oct. 7, 2023 assaults on Israel, and “operates below the guise of a journalist.”
The March 23 killing of rescue staff adopted an airstrike on a house within the al-Hashasheen space of southern Gaza. A Pink Crescent ambulance responded and was hit by Israeli gunfire, based on the help group.
When a convoy of emergency autos — together with two extra Pink Crescent ambulances, in addition to an ambulance and a fireplace truck from Gaza’s Civil Protection service — arrived to rescue the primary ambulance, Israeli troops fired once more, in a five-minute-long barrage.
Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, the Palestine Pink Crescent Society’s president, mentioned the Israeli troops had arrange an “ambush” for the convoy. Israeli forces then shot at a fourth Pink Crescent ambulance that got here to assist the others, Pink Crescent officers mentioned. A employee on the sector safety workforce for the U. N.’s company for Palestinian refugees was amongst these killed, based on an company spokeswoman, Tamara Alrifai.
The assault on the convoy was captured in a video the Pink Crescent mentioned was later found on the cellphone of one of many paramedics who was killed. The New York Occasions published that video final week.
Pink Crescent officers launched an extended, 19-minute model of the video on Monday, exhibiting fearful paramedics, moments earlier than they have been shot, trying to find their lacking co-workers.
The lads’s our bodies have been found per week later, when, after repeated requests, the United Nations and the Pink Crescent secured permission from the Israeli navy to seek for them. On Monday, the Pink Crescent mentioned that each one however one of many our bodies have been found piled collectively in a black mesh bag and buried “in a brutal and degrading method that violates human dignity.”
Preliminary autopsies confirmed a number of gunshot wounds to the higher elements of the boys’s our bodies, Dr. Al-Khatib mentioned on the information convention.
The video launched on Monday, exhibits the convoy racing down darkish roads to rescue the ambulance that had disappeared. The person who recorded it, recognized as Rifaat Radwan, a Pink Crescent paramedic, is heard praying repeatedly that his co-workers are alive and asking God to guard them.
As his ambulance barrels down a highway lit solely by its headlights, Mr. Radwan says to the motive force, “We’re calling their telephones and nobody is answering.” Naming the three lacking colleagues, he says, “Ezzedine often solutions, and so do Mustafa and Munther.”
The ambulance pulls up subsequent to a different ambulance, and after some dialogue about the place to seek out the lacking ambulance, the 2 crews be a part of a convoy that features the Civil Protection ambulance and hearth truck. Somebody tells Mr. Radwan to cease recording.
“These moments must be documented,” he replies. “Oh Lord, allow them to be OK Might the accidents be minor.”
A short time later, the convoy comes upon the lacking ambulance, a white form beside of the highway. The autos cease, and among the paramedics get out.
Then staccato gunfire could be heard for about 5 minutes, mingled with Mr. Radwan’s determined prayers.
At one level, he addresses his mom. “Forgive me, Mother, forgive me,” he says. “I swear I solely selected this path to assist others.”
His final phrases earlier than the video ends: “The Israeli troopers are coming, the Israeli troopers are coming.”
Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
