The Israeli army acknowledged that its soldiers made mistakes in killing 15 emergency services on March 23, in southern Gaza, writes BBC.
Ambulances that intervene after an attack by Israeli soldiers Profimedia photo
On the ambulance convoy of the Palestinian red crescent society (PRCS), a UN car and a fire truck from the Civil Defense in Gaza was fired near Rafah.
Initially, Israel claimed that the troops opened the fire as the convoy was approaching “suspect” in the dark, without headlights or light signals. The movement of the vehicles had not been coordinated or agreed by the army, writes the BBC.
Images filmed with the mobile phone by one of the paramedics who were killed shows that the vehicles had the lights on when they responded to a call to help.
Israel's defense forces (IDF) insist that six of the doctors, at least, had links with Hamas, but has not yet presented evidence. IDF recognizes that they were unarmed when the soldiers opened the fire.
The video video, initially published by the New York Times, shows how the vehicles are traveling on the road when, without any warning, the shootings begin, just before the sunrise.
Filming continues for more than five minutes, and the paramedic, identified as Refat Radwan, is heard as he says his last prayers, before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching vehicles.
An official of the IDF informed journalists on Saturday night, stating that the soldiers had previously fired on a car in which there were three Hamas members.
When the ambulances responded and approached the area, the air surveillance monitors informed the soil soldiers about the convoy “advance suspicious. “
Later, when the ambulances stopped near the Hamas car, the soldiers assumed they were threatened and opened the fire, despite the fact that they had no evidence that a person in the emergency crew was armed.
Israel admitted that his previous reports, in which he claimed that the vehicles approached without lights, were inaccurate, attributing them to the soldiers involved.
The video images show that the vehicles were visibly marked and that the paramedics wore reflective uniforms.
The soldiers buried the bodies of the 15 employees killed in the sand to protect them from wild animals, the official said, claiming that the vehicles were moved and buried the next day, to release the road.
They were discovered only one week after the incident, because international agencies, including UN, could not ensure safe access to the area or identify the place.
When a help team found the bodies, he also discovered his mobile phone Refat Radwan, containing the filming of the incident.
The Israeli military official denied that one of the doctors would have been handcuffed before they die and said that they were not executed from a short distance, as some reports suggested.
Previously, a paramedic who survived told the BBC that the ambulances had the lights started and denied that his colleagues would have had links with the militant group.
IDF promised a ”rigorous examination ” of the incident, stating that he will “understand the succession of events and the management of the situation”.
Red crescent and many other international organizations require an independent investigation.
