Israel’s Military Cites ‘Professional Failures’ in Killings of Gaza Medics

The Israeli military said Sunday that an investigation into its soldiers’ deadly attack on medics in southern Gaza last month had identified “several professional failures” and that a commander would be dismissed.

The military had previously acknowledged carrying out the attack in Rafah that killed 14 rescue workers and a United Nations employee who drove by after the others were shot. But it offered shifting explanations for why its troops fired on the emergency vehicles and said it was investigating the episode, one that prompted international condemnation and that experts described as a war crime.

On Sunday — nearly a month after the attack — the military released a statement summarizing its findings.

“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident,” it said.

The shootings of the rescue workers, the military said, resulted from “an operational misunderstanding” by troops on the ground “who believed they faced a tangible threat from enemy forces.” The firing on the U.N. vehicle, the statement said, constituted “a breach of orders” in a combat setting.

In a more detailed briefing for reporters shortly after the statement was released, the head of the investigating team, Yoav Har-Even, a major general in the reserves, described the killings as “a tragic and undesired result of a complex operational situation,” compounded by some serious errors in the actions of the forces on the ground.