The Palestine Purple 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 “collection of deliberate assaults.”
Talking at a information convention within the West Financial institution, Purple Crescent officers mentioned Israeli troops shot on the rescue employees in waves over a two-hour interval earlier than daybreak on March 23. They termed the killings “a full-fledged conflict crime” and referred to as on the United Nations Safety Council and the worldwide group to demand accountability and an unbiased investigation.
The Israeli navy, which has admitted to killing the 15 males, mentioned on Monday {that a} “preliminary inquiry indicated that the troops opened fireplace because of a perceived menace following a earlier encounter within the space,” and it might proceed investigating. It mentioned that six of these killed “had been recognized as Hamas terrorists,” however cited no proof.
The Purple Crescent and the United Nations have mentioned that the lifeless had been unarmed assist employees who posed no menace. They mentioned the lads had been carrying their uniforms and driving 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 lads had 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 present information company, bringing the variety of Palestinian journalists killed within the conflict 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 conflict for a whole lot 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 underneath the guise of a journalist.”
The March 23 killing of rescue employees adopted an airstrike on a house within the al-Hashasheen space of southern Gaza. A Purple Crescent ambulance responded and was hit by Israeli gunfire, in accordance with the help group.
When a convoy of emergency autos — together with two extra Purple 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 Purple Crescent Society’s president, mentioned the Israeli troops had arrange an “ambush” for the convoy. Israeli forces then shot at a fourth Purple Crescent ambulance that got here to assist the others, Purple Crescent officers mentioned. A employee on the sector safety staff for the U.N.’s company for Palestinian refugees was amongst these killed, in accordance with an company spokeswoman, Tamara Alrifai.
The assault on the convoy was captured in a video the Purple Crescent mentioned was later found on the cellphone of one of many paramedics who was killed. The New York Instances printed that video final week.
Purple Crescent officers launched an extended, 19-minute model of the video on Monday, displaying anxious paramedics, moments earlier than they had been shot, looking for their lacking co-workers.
The boys’s our bodies had been discovered every week later, when, after repeated requests, the United Nations and the Purple Crescent secured permission from the Israeli navy to go looking for them. On Monday, the Purple Crescent mentioned that each one however one of many our bodies had 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 lads’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 Purple Crescent paramedic, is heard praying repeatedly that his co-workers are alive and asking God to guard them.
As his ambulance barrels down a street 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 normally solutions, and so do Mustafa and Munther.”
The ambulance pulls up subsequent to a different ambulance, and after some dialogue about the place to search out the lacking ambulance, the 2 crews be a part of a convoy that features the Civil Protection ambulance and fireplace truck. Somebody tells Mr. Radwan to cease recording.
“These moments must be documented,” he replies. “Oh Lord, allow them to be OK Could the accidents be minor.”
A short time later, the convoy comes upon the lacking ambulance, a white form beside the street. The autos cease, and a number of 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.
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