Posted on 04/06/2025 8:35:37 PM PDT by Jyotishi
United Nations -- The Israeli military backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after phone video appeared to contradict its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip.
The military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking late Saturday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that account was “mistaken.”
The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier. The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.
Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire, which goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses. The owner of the phone can be heard praying.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a UN staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave.
UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s vice president, Marwan Jilani, said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the UN Security Council. The Associated Press obtained the video from a UN diplomat on condition of anonymity because 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 structures visible in the video are also seen in a UN video released Sunday showing the recovery of the bodies from the site - a sign they are in the same location.
Asked about the video, the Israeli military said Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination.”
One medic remains missing
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, called for an independent investigation. “We don’t trust any of the army investigations,” he told a briefing at the UN on Friday.
One medic, Assaad al-Nassasra, is still missing, the Red Crescent says. Abed said he saw al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. Al-Khatib said the organisation has asked the military where it is holding the staffer.
Al-Khatib said the slain men had been “targeted at close range” and that a forensic autopsy report would be released soon.
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.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Civil Defence, most of them while on duty, as well as over 1,000 health workers, according to the UN. The Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents.
Ambulances under a barrage of Israeli fire
Ambulances started heading to Tel al-Sultan at around 3.50 am on March 23, responding to reports of wounded, Jilani said. The first ambulance returned safely with at least one casualty, he said. But, he said, subsequent ambulances came under fire.
His hands trembling, Abed told the AP on Saturday that as his ambulance entered the area, its siren lights were on. “All of a sudden, I am telling you, there was direct shooting at us,” so intense that the vehicle ground to a stop, he said.
A 10-year veteran of the Red Crescent, Abed said he was sitting in the back seat and ducked to the floor. He said he could hear nothing from his two colleagues in the front seat - the only others in the vehicle. They appear to have been killed instantly.
Israeli troops, some with night goggles, dragged Abed out of the ambulance and onto the ground, he said. They made him strip to his underwear, beat him all over his body with their rifle butts, then tied his hands behind his back, he said.
They interrogated him, asking him about his paramedic training and how many people were in the ambulance with him, he said. One soldier pressed the muzzle of his automatic rifle into his neck. Another pressed his knife blade into Abed’s palm, almost cutting it, until a third soldier pulled them away and warned Abed, “They’re crazy.”
Abed said he witnessed them opening fire on the next vehicles to arrive. Soldiers forced him onto his stomach and pressed a gun into his back, he said, and amid the shooting in the darkness, so he could only see two Civil Defence vehicles.
Video shows medic’s terror
The phone video shows a rescue convoy of Red Crescent and Civil Defence vehicles that was sent out after contact was lost with the stricken ambulance. Taken from the dashboard of one vehicle, it shows several ambulances and a fire truck moving down a road through a barren area in the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs are flashing the entire way.
They arrive at an ambulance on the side of the road and stop next to it, their lights still flashing. No Israeli troops are visible.
“Lord, let them be OK,” a man in the car says. Then he cries out, “They’re tossed around on the ground!” - apparently referring to bodies. Three men in orange Civil Defence clothing can be seen getting out of the vehicles and walking toward the stopped ambulance.
A shot rings out and one of the men appears to fall. Gunfire erupts.
The man holding the phone appears to scramble out of the car and onto the ground, but the screen goes black, though the audio continues. The gunfire goes on for nearly five and a half minutes, with long, heavy barrages followed by silences punctuated by individual shots and shouts and screams.
Throughout, the man with the phone says over and over, “There is no God but God and Muhammad is God’s prophet” - the profession of faith that Muslims say when they fear they are about to die. Near the end of the six-minute, 40-second video, voices can be heard shouting in Hebrew. “The Jews are coming,” the man said, referring to Israeli soldiers, before the video cuts off.
The Israeli military official asserted there was “no mistreatment,” and said he didn’t know why the vehicles had been buried. He had no information about the medic who remained missing.
The Israeli military backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after phone video appeared to contradict its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip.
The military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking late Saturday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that account was “mistaken.”
The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier. The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.
Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire, which goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses. The owner of the phone can be heard praying.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a UN staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave.
UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s vice president, Marwan Jilani, said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the UN Security Council. The Associated Press obtained the video from a UN diplomat on condition of anonymity because 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 structures visible in the video are also seen in a UN video released Sunday showing the recovery of the bodies from the site - a sign they are in the same location.
Asked about the video, the Israeli military said Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination.”
One medic remains missing
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib, called for an independent investigation. “We don’t trust any of the army investigations,” he told a briefing at the UN on Friday.
One medic, Assaad al-Nassasra, is still missing, the Red Crescent says. Abed said he saw al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. Al-Khatib said the organisation has asked the military where it is holding the staffer.
Al-Khatib said the slain men had been “targeted at close range” and that a forensic autopsy report would be released soon.
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.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Civil Defence, most of them while on duty, as well as over 1,000 health workers, according to the UN. The Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents.
Ambulances under a barrage of Israeli fire
Ambulances started heading to Tel al-Sultan at around 3.50 am on March 23, responding to reports of wounded, Jilani said. The first ambulance returned safely with at least one casualty, he said. But, he said, subsequent ambulances came under fire.
His hands trembling, Abed told the AP on Saturday that as his ambulance entered the area, its siren lights were on. “All of a sudden, I am telling you, there was direct shooting at us,” so intense that the vehicle ground to a stop, he said.
A 10-year veteran of the Red Crescent, Abed said he was sitting in the back seat and ducked to the floor. He said he could hear nothing from his two colleagues in the front seat - the only others in the vehicle. They appear to have been killed instantly.
Israeli troops, some with night goggles, dragged Abed out of the ambulance and onto the ground, he said. They made him strip to his underwear, beat him all over his body with their rifle butts, then tied his hands behind his back, he said.
They interrogated him, asking him about his paramedic training and how many people were in the ambulance with him, he said. One soldier pressed the muzzle of his automatic rifle into his neck. Another pressed his knife blade into Abed’s palm, almost cutting it, until a third soldier pulled them away and warned Abed, “They’re crazy.”
Abed said he witnessed them opening fire on the next vehicles to arrive. Soldiers forced him onto his stomach and pressed a gun into his back, he said, and amid the shooting in the darkness, so he could only see two Civil Defence vehicles.
Video shows medic’s terror
The phone video shows a rescue convoy of Red Crescent and Civil Defence vehicles that was sent out after contact was lost with the stricken ambulance. Taken from the dashboard of one vehicle, it shows several ambulances and a fire truck moving down a road through a barren area in the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs are flashing the entire way.
They arrive at an ambulance on the side of the road and stop next to it, their lights still flashing. No Israeli troops are visible.
“Lord, let them be OK,” a man in the car says. Then he cries out, “They’re tossed around on the ground!” - apparently referring to bodies. Three men in orange Civil Defence clothing can be seen getting out of the vehicles and walking toward the stopped ambulance.
A shot rings out and one of the men appears to fall. Gunfire erupts.
The man holding the phone appears to scramble out of the car and onto the ground, but the screen goes black, though the audio continues. The gunfire goes on for nearly five and a half minutes, with long, heavy barrages followed by silences punctuated by individual shots and shouts and screams.
Throughout, the man with the phone says over and over, “There is no God but God and Muhammad is God’s prophet” - the profession of faith that Muslims say when they fear they are about to die. Near the end of the six-minute, 40-second video, voices can be heard shouting in Hebrew. “The Jews are coming,” the man said, referring to Israeli soldiers, before the video cuts off.
The Israeli military official asserted there was “no mistreatment,” and said he didn’t know why the vehicles had been buried. He had no information about the medic who remained missing.
That’s a shame.
Oh well. In other news...
Don’t care.
L
“That’s a shame.”
Agree, not always a good idea to KILL 1200 Israelis, even if you ‘change clothes’ afterwards.
Given what Moslems do to infidels
I find it hard to be tolerant.
The things that Hamas has done is horrific, but their actions won’t make what occurred in this case go away, for beyond the “west” reporting on this, even Jewish newspapers are reporting on this...and more.
Israel News
Analysis | Deaths of Gaza Aid Workers Test New IDF Chief as Army’s Recklessness Spreads to West Bank
4/6/25
>> even Jewish newspapers are reporting on this
No doubt; some “Jewish” news organizations — even Israeli ones — have a Jew (i.e. self) loathing attitude that approximates the way the nazis hated Jews.
It’s fascinating, but disgusting.
... for example, Haaretz is the king of Jewish self hatred. It is of a piece with their marxism. A pox on them.
You may be right but you may also be wrong, as I’ve heard that said about:
A.) The adherents of numerous Jewish sects who have Jewish mothers, say they follow the Torah to the best of their ability, attend synagogue, etc, but yet say they are anti-Zionist.
And yet when B.) other people have Jewish mothers, don’t attend synagogue, don’t follow the Torah, don’t even believe in God, but yet say they are Zionists (though it must be said not all Zionists are atheists) some will say these, otoh, aren’t self-loathers.
So are those who are in group B: Jewish, atheist Zionists loathing whom they are?
I’m not going to say they are.
Neither would I say that about those in group A or at the Haaretz newspaper.
So it can be more nuanced than what you make it to be.
I’m not going to judge those at Haaretz, or in group A or B I’ve already talked about.
So do I support Marxism? Absolutely not, but again, I won’t judge them.
Their report is either correct or it is false, and should be judged on the merits and truthfulness (or lack thereof) of their reporting alone.
God bless!
Well, in this country I know some who identify as Christians and claim to believe, more or less, in GOD’s word (”buffet style”) who hate their white selves, hate America, and overlook tenets of Scripture that go against their cultural marxist beliefs regarding murdering babies in the womb and engaging in sexual perversion.
So, call it “nuanced” if you like. Still, it’s indisputable that Jew-loathers do congregate in cohesive, labeled groups replete with their own news organizations. Some are (more or less) Torah believing Jews. Not every torah believing Jew is self loathing but you bet there are cohesive groups of such, and they build websites and NGOs around their beliefs...
Haaretz is SHJ media. Opus?
You mean that UNRHA vehicle filled with terrorists and dead Israeli hostages?
Humas could put red crosses on tanks, then media would claim Israelis attacked medical vehicles
The bias is completely out in the open now, even if these vehicles were what they were claimed to be, I have a hard time blaming the Israelis.
Next step big signs on top of weapons depots and CC buildings…. saying “baby milk factories”
Whether they had their lights on or not- if they are advancing on Israeli troops then they are up to something awful.
The terrorists have a LONG history of using such tactics and using their own people as human shields.
Israel was right to open fire.
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