The IDF said it fired on a vehicle in southern Gaza it claimed was carrying Hamas police officers, while the Palestinian Red Crescent said it was an ambulance. The IDF has not yet provided evidence showing that the vehicle was affiliated with Hamas
Haaretz
The Israeli army denied on Saturday the claim that 15 aid workers killed by IDF fire in the Gaza Strip on March 23 were executed after being bound.
The IDF’s statement follows a video released by the New York Times showing that contrary to Israel’s claims, the ambulances and fire trucks carrying the workers were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on when Israeli forces fired at them.
According to the IDF, shortly after Israeli forces set up an ambush in Tel al-Sultan in the southern Gaza Strip, a vehicle the army claims was Hamas police passed through. The IDF says that it opened fire on the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others.
The Palestinian Red Crescent claimed that the vehicle was an ambulance passing through on its way to assist wounded civilians in the area. The IDF says that all three were Hamas police officers but has presented no evidence that those in the first vehicle were affiliated with Hamas.
After the first vehicle crossed the ambush, four ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle arrived. According to the IDF, a drone followed the vehicle convoy, and its operators notified the commander of the Israeli forces on the ground that they were moving ‘suspiciously.’
The IDF statement added that the workers who disembarked from the vehicles did so quickly, which raised suspicion among the soldiers, prompting them to open fire, killing all 15 workers. According to the military, all those killed were shot from a distance.
The IDF reiterated its often-used claim that Hamas uses ambulances and emergency vehicles to move around the Gaza Strip.
However, a video published Saturday morning – sourced from the phone of one of the slain paramedics – captures gunfire growing closer over the course of five minutes. At one point, voices of soldiers can be heard passing nearby while the paramedic was still alive, reciting prayers.
The New York Times reported that the paramedic’s body was later found with a bullet lodged in his head.
Regarding the burial of the bodies and the vehicles in the sand, the IDF said that this is ‘common practice’ intended to prevent animals from approaching the bodies. The vehicles, according to the IDF, were not buried but moved after two days to clear the route.
The IDF also denies the claim that they mutilated the bodies. The video released by the UN shows the bodies in very bad condition; some of them looked as if they were dismembered.
The UN said that the IDF prohibited its workers from approaching the site for five days. The IDF responded by saying that there was an attempt to coordinate the UN workers’ arrival, but the bodies could not be found, and it took several more days to find the correct site and arrange a second coordination.
The IDF’s statement added that it is possible that only one of the vehicles drove without its lights on and that they will check internally why a false report was passed on to the media.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir also ordered that the incident be ‘investigated internally’ by the unit deployed when war crimes are suspected.
Since the war began, dozens of incidents have been sent to this internal unit, with no known reprimands or punishments issued against IDF soldiers.