Gaza civil defence describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’
By AFP
April 21, 2025
A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - Copyright AFP/File
By AFP
April 21, 2025
A video recovered from the phone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account - Copyright AFP/File
Filippo MONTEFORTE
Gaza’s civil defence agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out “summary executions” in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.
The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah early on March 23, days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.
Among those killed were eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.
“The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation’s narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions,” Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defence official, told AFP, accusing Israel of seeking to “circumvent” its obligations under international law.
Following the shooting, the Red Crescent released a video recovered from the phone of one of the victims. It does not show executions, but it does directly contradict the version of events initially put forward by the Israeli military.
In particular, the video shows clearly that the ambulances were travelling with sirens, flashing lights and headlights on. The military had claimed the ambulances were travelling “suspiciously” and without lights.
– Operational failures –
The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.
An Israeli military investigation into the incident released on Sunday “found no evidence to support claims of execution” or “indiscriminate fire” by its troops, but admitted to operational failures and said it was firing a field commander.
It said six of those killed were militants, revising an earlier claim that nine of the men were fighters.
The dead, who were buried in sand by Israeli forces, were only recovered several days after the attack from what the UN human rights agency OCHA described as a “mass grave”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society denounced the report as “full of lies”.
“It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.
The Israeli investigation said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.
In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.
In the second, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances”, the military said.
The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops”.
In the third incident, the troops fired at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations”, the military said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out “summary executions” in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.
The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah early on March 23, days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.
Among those killed were eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.
“The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation’s narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions,” Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defence official, told AFP, accusing Israel of seeking to “circumvent” its obligations under international law.
Following the shooting, the Red Crescent released a video recovered from the phone of one of the victims. It does not show executions, but it does directly contradict the version of events initially put forward by the Israeli military.
In particular, the video shows clearly that the ambulances were travelling with sirens, flashing lights and headlights on. The military had claimed the ambulances were travelling “suspiciously” and without lights.
– Operational failures –
The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.
An Israeli military investigation into the incident released on Sunday “found no evidence to support claims of execution” or “indiscriminate fire” by its troops, but admitted to operational failures and said it was firing a field commander.
It said six of those killed were militants, revising an earlier claim that nine of the men were fighters.
The dead, who were buried in sand by Israeli forces, were only recovered several days after the attack from what the UN human rights agency OCHA described as a “mass grave”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society denounced the report as “full of lies”.
“It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.
The Israeli investigation said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.
In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.
In the second, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances”, the military said.
The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops”.
In the third incident, the troops fired at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations”, the military said.
By Melanie Lidman
April 21, 2025 — AP
Jerusalem: An Israeli investigation into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Israeli forces said it found a chain of “professional failures”, and a deputy commander who was first to open fire has been sacked.
The shootings outraged many in the international community, with some calling the killings a war crime. Medical workers have special protection under international humanitarian law. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years.
The footage shows the convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, clearly marked, with headlights and flashing lights turned on. Supplied by The New York Times.
Israel at first claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked.
Cellphone video recovered from one medic contradicted Israel’s initial account. Footage shows the ambulances had lights flashing and logos visible as they pulled up to help another ambulance that earlier came under fire.
The military investigation – released on Sunday, Jerusalem time – found that the deputy battalion commander acted under the incorrect assumption that all the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants.
Emergency crews ‘struck one after another’ as they searched for missing colleagues
It said the deputy commander, operating under “poor night visibility”, felt his troops were under threat when the ambulances sped toward their position and medics rushed out to check the victims. The military said the flashing lights were less visible on night-vision drones and goggles.
The ambulances immediately came under a barrage of gunfire that went on for more than five minutes with brief pauses. Minutes later, soldiers opened fire at a UN car that stopped at the scene.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a UN staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops bulldozed over the bodies along with their vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later.
The Israeli military said soldiers buried the bodies to prevent them from being mangled by stray dogs and coyotes until they could be collected, and that the ambulances were moved to allow the route to be used for civilian evacuations later that day.
The investigation found that the decision to crush the ambulances was wrong, but said there was no attempt to conceal the shootings.
Mourners carry the bodies of Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah after a March 23 Israeli attack.CREDIT:AP
Major-General Yoav Har-Even, who oversees the military’s investigations, said it notified international organisations later that day and helped rescue workers locate the bodies.
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said the men 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 deputy commander was the first to open fire, leading the rest of the soldiers to start shooting, Har-Even said. The investigation found the paramedics were killed due to an “operational misunderstanding” by Israeli forces, and that shooting at the UN car was a breach of orders.
The findings asserted that six of those killed were Hamas militants – it did not give their names – and said three other paramedics were originally misidentified as Hamas. The Civil Defence is part of the Hamas-run government.
No paramedic was armed and no weapons were found in any vehicle, Har-Even said.
One survivor was detained for investigation and remains in custody for further questioning. According to the military, soldiers who questioned the survivor thought he identified himself as a Hamas member, which was later refuted.
Har-Even said the deputy commander was fired for giving a not “completely accurate” report to investigators about the firing on a UN vehicle.
The statement on the findings concluded by saying that Israel’s military “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians”.
The site where the 15 bodies were found. The UN described it as a mass grave.CREDIT:X/@_JWHITTALL
“Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfolding, and the norms designed to protect us all, eroding. Too many civilians, including aid workers, have been killed in Gaza. Their stories have not all made the headlines,” Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the UN humanitarian office OCHA, said in a statement responding to the findings.
There was no immediate public reaction from the Red Crescent or Civil Defence.
The findings have been turned over the Military Advocate General, which can decide whether to file civil charges. It is meant to be an independent body, with oversight by Israel’s attorney general and Supreme Court.
There are no outside investigations of the killings under way.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Civil Defence, most of them while on duty, and more 1000 health workers during the war, according to the UN. The Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents.
Israel has accused Hamas of moving and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency vehicles, as well as in hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, arguing that justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny the accusations.
Palestinians and international human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israel’s military of failing to properly investigate or whitewashing misconduct by its troops.
Har-Even said the Israeli military was currently investigating 421 incidents in Gaza during the war, with 51 concluded and sent to the Military Advocate General. There was no immediate information on the number of investigations involving potential wrongful deaths or how many times the MAG has pursued criminal charges.
The International Criminal Court, established by the international community as a court of last resort, has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes. Israel, which is not a member of the court, has long asserted that its legal system is capable of investigating the army, and Netanyahu has accused the ICC of antisemitism.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive has since killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Frustration has been growing on both sides, with rare public protests against Hamas in Gaza and continued weekly rallies in Israel pressing the government to reach a deal to bring all hostages home.
AP
Israel says Gaza medics’ killing a ‘mistake,’ to dismiss commander
By AFP
April 20, 2025
A video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account days after the incident - Copyright Palestinian Red Crescent/AFP -
Alice Chancellor with Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem
An Israeli military probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza admitted Sunday that mistakes led to their deaths and that a field commander would be dismissed.
But the probe found no evidence of “indiscriminate fire” by the troops.
The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near the southern Gaza city of Rafah early on March 23, just days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.
The incident has drawn international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
Germany had called for an urgent investigation and “accountability of the perpetrators.”
The probe said six of the dead were Hamas militants, although no weapons were found.
“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident,” the summary of the investigation said.
Reserve Major General Yoav Har-Even, who led the investigation, accepted that troops involved in the incident had committed an error.
“We’re saying it was a mistake. We don’t think it’s a daily mistake,” he told journalists when asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military.
Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.
Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the shooting scene in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area.
OCHA described it as a mass grave.
Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has said an autopsy of the victims revealed that “all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill”.
The military rejected his accusation.
“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” the probe said, amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.
“The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them,” it said, adding that six of the 15 were “identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists”.
It had earlier said nine of those killed were militants.
“The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the probe added, but did not provide evidence that six of the men were militants.
Har-Even acknowledged that no weapons were found on the dead men.
– ‘No attempt to conceal’ –
Days after the incident, the army said its soldiers fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles”, with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.
But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military’s account.
The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.
The military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles “to prevent further harm.”
“There was no attempt to conceal the event,” it said.
“We don’t lie,” military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Sunday.
The military said a deputy commander “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”.
The military said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.
– ‘Breach of orders’ –
In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.
In the second incident, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances very close to the area in which the troops were operating, after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat,” the military said.
“The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle’s passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire.”
The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations,” the military said.
The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops.”
“The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting,” it added.
The UN said in early April that after the team of first responders was killed, other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.
Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP earlier he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops.
Another medic also survived and the military confirmed Sunday he was in its custody.
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services pray by the bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025.
(Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Apr 20, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
The Israel Defense Forces' report on the killing of 15 paramedics in Gaza last month was "sure to lead to increased demands for an independent investigation," said one journalist for Sky News, which recently released an extensive account of the incident that experts and advocates have called a potential war crime.
The IDF said it had found "several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident" that took place on March 23, when Israeli troops opened fire on a convoy of vehicles that included ambulances, killing the 15 rescue workers.
But officials claimed that there was "no attempt to conceal the event" and the report suggested the firing of a deputy commander for providing an "inaccurate report" and the reprimanding of a commanding officer should satisfy the international outcry over the incident, after which United Nations and Palestinian Red Crescent officials discovered the medics' bodies and their crushed rescue vehicles had been buried in a shallow mass grave.
"Is this meant to be a joke?" said Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha after the IDF announced the commanders would be fired and reprimanded. "How is this supposed to help the children and families of these medics? ...These war criminals should be arrested and handed over to the [International Criminal Court] for due legal processing."
The IDF report found that six out of 15 Palestinians killed "were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists," but did not produce evidence to support the claim; Sky News, which released its investigation on on Friday, also did not find evidence.
The report also claimed that the army decided to "gather and cover the bodies to prevent further harm and clear the vehicles from the route in preparation for civilian evacuation"—an explanation for the buried bodies and ambulances.
As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, the IDF's claim that soldiers "did not randomly attack" the convoy but rather fired on suspected "terrorists" in "suspicious vehicles" was refuted by video evidence from the phone of one of the medics who was found in the mass grave—believed to be Refaat Radwan.
The video showed a convoy of clearly marked ambulances and fire truck, with headlights and flashing lights on—contradicting the IDF's claim that the vehicles were driving with their lights off.
Despite the video evidence, the IDF report said there was "no evidence to support claims of execution" and accused those who have made such accusations of "blood libels."
The Sky News report released Friday found that Israel's claim that the medics were not fired at from a close distance was false and that expert analysis of Radwan's cellphone video determined shots had been fired from as close as 12 meters away
Palestinian-American policy analyst Yousef Munayyer said that in the case of the medics' killing, "video evidence exposed [the IDF's] lies forcing this flimsy effort mascarading as accountability so they can sweep it under the rug."
Israel is able to repeatedly attack civilians and aid workers and claim that their deaths were accidental, Munayyer suggested, because "western media is willing to believe as fact initial Israeli narratives around atrocities."
The Israeli probe found "professional failures," said former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, but the IDF "doesn't seem to have examined the rules of engagement, approved by senior officials, that permit killing before clear identification of a combatant."
The killing of the paramedics underscored the "atmosphere of impunity" in Gaza, said one Israeli policy analyst.
"What we know is that we cannot trust the Israeli [military]. Unless The New York Times would have gotten hold of that video clip, I don't think that we would know the truth," Akiva Eldar told Al Jazeera. "It would be another cover-up."
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told Al Jazeera that the IDF report "invites many questions that it will be difficult, I suspect, for the [Israeli military] to answer."
"For example, [there is] the proposition that six of these people were Hamas, presumably members of Hamas on active [military] service, not people who might have been associated with Hamas in some way. No documentary evidence at all is identified [for that]," he told the outlet.
Breaking the Silence, a group made up of Israeli veterans of the IDF who speak out against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, said the report was "riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing, and selective details."
"We all remember when the IDF claimed that the ambulances emergency lights weren't on—and then we saw the footage proving otherwise. Not every lie has a video to expose it, but this report doesn't even attempt to engage with the truth," said the group.
"Another day, another cover-up," Breaking the Silence added. "More innocent lives taken, with no accountability."
By AFP
April 20, 2025
A video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military's account days after the incident - Copyright Palestinian Red Crescent/AFP -
Alice Chancellor with Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem
An Israeli military probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza admitted Sunday that mistakes led to their deaths and that a field commander would be dismissed.
But the probe found no evidence of “indiscriminate fire” by the troops.
The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near the southern Gaza city of Rafah early on March 23, just days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.
The incident has drawn international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
Germany had called for an urgent investigation and “accountability of the perpetrators.”
The probe said six of the dead were Hamas militants, although no weapons were found.
“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident,” the summary of the investigation said.
Reserve Major General Yoav Har-Even, who led the investigation, accepted that troops involved in the incident had committed an error.
“We’re saying it was a mistake. We don’t think it’s a daily mistake,” he told journalists when asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military.
Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.
Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the shooting scene in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area.
OCHA described it as a mass grave.
Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has said an autopsy of the victims revealed that “all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill”.
The military rejected his accusation.
“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” the probe said, amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.
“The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them,” it said, adding that six of the 15 were “identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists”.
It had earlier said nine of those killed were militants.
“The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the probe added, but did not provide evidence that six of the men were militants.
Har-Even acknowledged that no weapons were found on the dead men.
– ‘No attempt to conceal’ –
Days after the incident, the army said its soldiers fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles”, with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.
But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military’s account.
The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.
The military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles “to prevent further harm.”
“There was no attempt to conceal the event,” it said.
“We don’t lie,” military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Sunday.
The military said a deputy commander “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”.
The military said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.
– ‘Breach of orders’ –
In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.
In the second incident, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances very close to the area in which the troops were operating, after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat,” the military said.
“The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle’s passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire.”
The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations,” the military said.
The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops.”
“The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting,” it added.
The UN said in early April that after the team of first responders was killed, other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.
Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP earlier he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops.
Another medic also survived and the military confirmed Sunday he was in its custody.
'Another Day, Another Cover-Up,' Rights Group Says as IDF Releases Report on Medics' Killing
"This report doesn't even attempt to engage with the truth," said the Israeli group Breaking the Silence.
"This report doesn't even attempt to engage with the truth," said the Israeli group Breaking the Silence.
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services pray by the bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31, 2025.
(Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Apr 20, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
The Israel Defense Forces' report on the killing of 15 paramedics in Gaza last month was "sure to lead to increased demands for an independent investigation," said one journalist for Sky News, which recently released an extensive account of the incident that experts and advocates have called a potential war crime.
The IDF said it had found "several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident" that took place on March 23, when Israeli troops opened fire on a convoy of vehicles that included ambulances, killing the 15 rescue workers.
But officials claimed that there was "no attempt to conceal the event" and the report suggested the firing of a deputy commander for providing an "inaccurate report" and the reprimanding of a commanding officer should satisfy the international outcry over the incident, after which United Nations and Palestinian Red Crescent officials discovered the medics' bodies and their crushed rescue vehicles had been buried in a shallow mass grave.
"Is this meant to be a joke?" said Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha after the IDF announced the commanders would be fired and reprimanded. "How is this supposed to help the children and families of these medics? ...These war criminals should be arrested and handed over to the [International Criminal Court] for due legal processing."
The IDF report found that six out of 15 Palestinians killed "were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists," but did not produce evidence to support the claim; Sky News, which released its investigation on on Friday, also did not find evidence.
The report also claimed that the army decided to "gather and cover the bodies to prevent further harm and clear the vehicles from the route in preparation for civilian evacuation"—an explanation for the buried bodies and ambulances.
As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, the IDF's claim that soldiers "did not randomly attack" the convoy but rather fired on suspected "terrorists" in "suspicious vehicles" was refuted by video evidence from the phone of one of the medics who was found in the mass grave—believed to be Refaat Radwan.
The video showed a convoy of clearly marked ambulances and fire truck, with headlights and flashing lights on—contradicting the IDF's claim that the vehicles were driving with their lights off.
Despite the video evidence, the IDF report said there was "no evidence to support claims of execution" and accused those who have made such accusations of "blood libels."
The Sky News report released Friday found that Israel's claim that the medics were not fired at from a close distance was false and that expert analysis of Radwan's cellphone video determined shots had been fired from as close as 12 meters away
Palestinian-American policy analyst Yousef Munayyer said that in the case of the medics' killing, "video evidence exposed [the IDF's] lies forcing this flimsy effort mascarading as accountability so they can sweep it under the rug."
Israel is able to repeatedly attack civilians and aid workers and claim that their deaths were accidental, Munayyer suggested, because "western media is willing to believe as fact initial Israeli narratives around atrocities."
The Israeli probe found "professional failures," said former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, but the IDF "doesn't seem to have examined the rules of engagement, approved by senior officials, that permit killing before clear identification of a combatant."
The killing of the paramedics underscored the "atmosphere of impunity" in Gaza, said one Israeli policy analyst.
"What we know is that we cannot trust the Israeli [military]. Unless The New York Times would have gotten hold of that video clip, I don't think that we would know the truth," Akiva Eldar told Al Jazeera. "It would be another cover-up."
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told Al Jazeera that the IDF report "invites many questions that it will be difficult, I suspect, for the [Israeli military] to answer."
"For example, [there is] the proposition that six of these people were Hamas, presumably members of Hamas on active [military] service, not people who might have been associated with Hamas in some way. No documentary evidence at all is identified [for that]," he told the outlet.
Breaking the Silence, a group made up of Israeli veterans of the IDF who speak out against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, said the report was "riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing, and selective details."
"We all remember when the IDF claimed that the ambulances emergency lights weren't on—and then we saw the footage proving otherwise. Not every lie has a video to expose it, but this report doesn't even attempt to engage with the truth," said the group.
"Another day, another cover-up," Breaking the Silence added. "More innocent lives taken, with no accountability."
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