Video footage seems to contradict Israeli account of Gaza medic killings
Cell phone footage has emerged that seems to contradict Israel’s account of why troopers opened fireplace on a convoy of ambulances and a fireplace truck on March 23, killing 15 rescue staff.
The video, revealed by the Palestine Purple Crescent Society (PRCS), reveals the autos transferring in darkness with headlights and emergency flashing lights switched on – earlier than coming underneath fireplace. The PRCS stated the video was obtained from the cellphone of a paramedic who was killed.
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) initially denied the autos had their headlights or emergency alerts on.
However in response to the brand new video, the IDF instructed the BBC: “All claims, together with the documentation circulating in regards to the incident, shall be totally and deeply examined to grasp the sequence of occasions and the dealing with of the state of affairs”.
A surviving paramedic beforehand instructed the BBC that the ambulances have been clearly marked and had their inside and exterior lights on.
The newest video, which the PRCS stated had been proven to the UN Safety Council, reveals the marked autos drawing to a halt on the sting of the highway, lights nonetheless flashing, and a minimum of two emergency staff stepping out sporting reflective clothes.
The windscreen of the car being filmed from is cracked and capturing can then be heard lasting for a number of minutes because the individual filming says prayers. He’s understood to be one of many useless paramedics.
The footage was discovered on his cellphone after his physique was recovered from a shallow grave one week after the incident. The our bodies of the eight paramedics, six Gaza Civil Defence staff and one UN worker have been discovered buried in sand, together with their wrecked autos. It took worldwide organisations days to barter secure entry to the positioning.
Israel claimed a variety of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had been killed within the incident, but it surely has not offered any proof or additional defined the risk to its troops.
Israel’s Overseas Minister Gideon Saar earlier this week echoed the military account, saying “the IDF didn’t randomly assault an ambulance”.
The IDF promised to research the circumstances after a surviving paramedic questioned its account.
In an interview with the BBC, paramedic Munther Abed stated: “Throughout day and at evening, it is the identical factor. Exterior and inside lights are on. Every little thing tells you it is an ambulance car that belongs to the Palestinian Purple Crescent. All lights have been on till the car got here underneath direct fireplace.”
He additionally denied he or his group had any militant connections.
“All crews are civilian. We do not belong to any militant group. Our fundamental responsibility is to supply ambulance companies and save individuals’s lives. No extra, no much less,” he stated.
Talking on the United Nations yesterday the President of the PRCS, Dr Younis Al-Khatib, referred to the video recording, saying: “I heard the voice of a kind of group members who was killed. His final phrases earlier than being shot…’forgive me mum, I simply wished to assist individuals. I wished to avoid wasting lives’. It is heartbreaking”.
He referred to as for “accountability” and “an “unbiased and thorough investigation” of what he referred to as an “atrocious crime”.
One paramedic continues to be unaccounted for following the 23 March incident.
