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The Palestine Red Crescent released a video made by a paramedic before he was killed, and called the deaths of 15 rescue workers “a full-fledged war crime.” Israel has said it is investigating.
By Vivian Yee and Fatima AbdulKarim
Vivian Yee reported from Cairo, and Fatima AbdulKarim from Ramallah, West Bank.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society on Monday gave new details of the Israeli attack on its paramedics and other emergency responders in the Gaza Strip that killed at least 15 people last month, saying Israeli forces had targeted them in a “series of deliberate attacks.”
Speaking at a news conference in the West Bank, Red Crescent officials said Israeli troops shot at the rescue workers in waves over a two-hour period before dawn on March 23. They termed the killings “a full-fledged war crime” and called on the United Nations Security Council and the international community to demand accountability and an independent investigation.
The Israeli military, which has admitted to killing the 15 men, said on Monday that a “preliminary inquiry indicated that the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area,” and it would continue investigating. It said that six of those killed “were identified as Hamas terrorists,” but cited no evidence.
The Red Crescent and the United Nations have said that the dead were unarmed aid workers who posed no threat. They said the men were wearing their uniforms and riding in clearly marked emergency vehicles, flashing their emergency lights.
An Israeli military official who briefed reporters on the incident on Saturday declined to say whether the men were armed.
Also on Monday, an Israeli strike near a hospital in southern Gaza killed two people, including a journalist for the Palestine Today news agency, bringing the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the war to 210, Gaza’s government press office said. It said the strike also wounded nine journalists, including Hassan Aslih, well-known for documenting the war for hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
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Israel’s military said Mr. Aslih was its target. Without citing evidence, it called him a Hamas militant who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, and “operates under the guise of a journalist.”
The March 23 killing of rescue workers followed an airstrike on a home in the al-Hashasheen area of southern Gaza. A Red Crescent ambulance responded and was hit by Israeli gunfire, according to the aid group.
When a convoy of emergency vehicles — including two more Red Crescent ambulances, as well as an ambulance and a fire truck from Gaza’s Civil Defense service — arrived to rescue the first ambulance, Israeli troops fired again, in a five-minute-long barrage.
Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, the Palestine Red Crescent Society’s president, said the Israeli troops had set up an “ambush” for the convoy. Israeli forces then shot at a fourth Red Crescent ambulance that came to help the others, Red Crescent officials said. A worker on the field security team for the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees was among those killed, according to an agency spokeswoman, Tamara Alrifai.
The attack on the convoy was captured in a video the Red Crescent said was later discovered on the cellphone of one of the paramedics who was killed. The New York Times published that video last week.
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Red Crescent officials released a longer, 19-minute version of the video on Monday, showing worried paramedics, moments before they were shot, searching for their missing co-workers.
The men’s bodies were found a week later, when, after repeated requests, the United Nations and the Red Crescent secured permission from the Israeli military to search for them. On Monday, the Red Crescent said that all but one of the bodies were discovered piled together in a black mesh bag and buried “in a brutal and degrading manner that violates human dignity.”
Preliminary autopsies showed multiple gunshot wounds to the upper parts of the men’s bodies, Dr. Al-Khatib said at the news conference.
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The video released on Monday, shows the convoy racing down dark roads to rescue the ambulance that had disappeared. The man who recorded it, identified as Rifaat Radwan, a Red Crescent paramedic, is heard praying repeatedly that his co-workers are alive and asking God to protect them.
As his ambulance barrels down a road lit only by its headlights, Mr. Radwan says to the driver, “We’re calling their phones and no one is answering.” Naming the three missing colleagues, he says, “Ezzedine usually answers, and so do Mustafa and Munther.”
The ambulance pulls up next to another ambulance, and after some discussion about where to find the missing ambulance, the two crews join a convoy that includes the Civil Defense ambulance and fire truck. Someone tells Mr. Radwan to stop recording.
“These moments need to be documented,” he replies. “Oh Lord, let them be OK May the injuries be minor.”
A little while later, the convoy comes upon the missing ambulance, a white shape beside the road. The vehicles stop, and some of the paramedics get out.
Then staccato gunfire can be heard for about five minutes, mingled with Mr. Radwan’s desperate prayers.
At one point, he addresses his mother. “Forgive me, Mom, forgive me,” he says. “I swear I only chose this path to help others.”
His last words before the video ends: “The Israeli soldiers are coming, the Israeli soldiers are coming.”
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Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo.
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