BBC“I am the one survivor who noticed what occurred to my colleagues,” Munther Abed says, scrolling via photos of his fellow paramedics on his telephone.
He survived the Israeli assault that killed 15 emergency staff in Gaza by diving to the ground at the back of his ambulance, as his two colleagues within the entrance had been shot within the early hours of 23 March.
“We left the headquarters roughly at daybreak,” he instructed one of many BBC’s trusted freelance journalists working in Gaza, explaining how the response staff from the Palestinian Crimson Crescent, Gaza’s Civil Defence company and the UN company for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) gathered on the sting of the southern metropolis of Rafah after receiving studies of gunfire and wounded individuals.
“Roughly by 04:30, all Civil Defence autos had been in place. At 04:40 the primary two autos went out. At 04:50, the final car arrived. At round 05:00, the company [UN] automotive was shot at instantly on the street,” he says.
The Israeli navy says its forces opened hearth as a result of the autos had been transferring suspiciously in direction of troopers with out prior co-ordination and with their lights off. It additionally claimed that 9 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives had been killed within the incident.
Jonathan WhittallMunther challenges that account.
“Throughout day and at night time, it is the identical factor. Exterior and inside lights are on. The whole lot tells you it is an ambulance car that belongs to the Palestinian Crimson Crescent. All lights had been on till the car got here below direct hearth,” he says.
After that, he provides, he was pulled from the wreckage by Israeli troopers, arrested and blindfolded. He claimed he was interrogated over 15 hours, earlier than being launched.
The BBC has put his claims to the Israel Protection Forces (IDF), however it’s but to reply.
“The IDF didn’t randomly assault an ambulance,” Israel’s Overseas Minister Gideon Saar claimed, when questioned at a information convention, echoing the IDF’s statements.
“A number of uncoordinated autos had been recognized advancing suspiciously towards IDF troops with out headlights or emergency alerts. IDF troops then opened hearth on the suspected autos.”
He added: “Following an preliminary evaluation, it was decided that the forces had eradicated a Hamas navy terrorist, Mohammed Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took half within the October 7 bloodbath, together with eight different terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
Shubaki’s identify is just not on the record of the 15 lifeless emergency staff – eight of whom had been Palestinian Crimson Crescent medics, six had been Civil Defence first responders, and one was an Unrwa employees member.
Israel has not accounted for the whereabouts of Shubaki’s physique or supplied any proof of the direct menace the emergency staff posed.
Munther rejects Israel’s declare that Hamas could have used the ambulances as cowl.
“That is completely unfaithful. All crews are civilian,” he says.
“We do not belong to any militant group. Our fundamental responsibility is to supply ambulance providers and save individuals’s lives. No extra, no much less”.
Gaza’s paramedics carried their very own colleagues to their funerals earlier this week. There was an outcry of grief together with requires accountability. One bereaved father instructed the BBC that his son was killed “in chilly blood”.
Worldwide companies might solely entry the realm to retrieve their our bodies every week after the assault. They had been discovered buried in sand alongside the wrecked ambulances, hearth truck and UN car.
Sam Rose, appearing director of Unrwa’s Gaza workplace, says: “What we all know is that fifteen individuals misplaced their lives, that they had been buried in shallow graves in a sand berm in the midst of the street, handled with full indignity and what would look like an infringement of worldwide humanitarian legislation.
“However it’s provided that now we have an investigation, a full and full investigation, that we’ll be capable of resolve it.”
Getty PicturesIsrael is but to decide to an investigation. Based on the UN, no less than 1,060 healthcare staff have been killed because the begin of the battle.
“Definitely all ambulance staff, all medics, all humanitarian staff inside Gaza proper now really feel more and more insecure, more and more fragile,” Mr Rose says.
One paramedic remains to be unaccounted for following the 23 March incident.
“They weren’t simply colleagues however associates”, Munther says, nervously working prayer beads via his fingers. “We used to eat, drink, snicker and have jokes collectively… I think about them my second household.”
“I’ll expose the crimes dedicated by the occupation [Israel] towards my colleagues. If I used to be not the one survivor, who might have instructed the world what they did to our colleagues, and who would have instructed their story?”
