The Palestinian Purple Crescent Society (PRCS) has described an Israeli army report right into a lethal assault on its paramedics as “stuffed with lies”.
The Israeli army stated in its report that “skilled failures” led to the killing of the 15 employees in Gaza. It dismissed the deputy commander of the unit concerned.
A spokeswoman for the PRCS stated the report was “invalid” because it “justifies and shifts the accountability to a private error within the area command when the reality is sort of completely different”.
Fourteen emergency employees and a UN employee had been killed on 23 March after a convoy of PRCS ambulances, a UN automobile and a fireplace truck got here underneath fireplace by the Israeli army.
The UN’s humanitarian chief in Gaza recommended the investigation didn’t go far sufficient. “A scarcity of actual accountability undermines worldwide regulation and makes the world a extra harmful place,” stated Jonathan Whittall.
“With out accountability, we threat persevering with to look at atrocities unfolding, and the norms designed to guard us all, eroding.”
The Purple Crescent and a number of other different worldwide organisations have beforehand known as for an impartial investigation into the incident. The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) investigation was carried out by its Truth-Discovering Mechanism, which it describes as neutral.
The IDF report stated the incident passed off in what it known as a “hostile and harmful fight zone”, and that the commander on the bottom perceived a right away and tangible menace after automobiles approached quickly.
It blamed “poor night time visibility”, which the IDF stated meant the commander didn’t establish the automobiles as ambulances.
However it later stated that account was “mistaken” after a video discovered on the cell phone of a medic who was killed confirmed the automobiles with their lights on and their emergency alerts flashing.
The footage reveals the automobiles pulling up on the highway when taking pictures begins simply earlier than daybreak.
The video continues for greater than 5 minutes, with the paramedic saying his final prayers earlier than the voices of Israeli troopers are heard approaching the automobiles.
It additionally reveals the automobiles had been clearly marked and the paramedics carrying reflective hi-vis uniform.
The our bodies of the 15 lifeless employees had been buried in sand. The report stated this was completed “to forestall additional hurt” and that the choice to take action “was cheap underneath the circumstances”.
They weren’t recovered till per week after the incident as a result of worldwide businesses, together with the UN, couldn’t organise protected passage to the world or find the spot.
Journalists invited to an Israeli army briefing on Sunday had been proven aerial footage, shot within the early hours of 23 March, which confirmed the collection of three assaults. It additionally confirmed that a number of different automobiles, together with an ambulance, handed by within the hour or so between the primary and second Israeli assault, with out being shot at.
Israeli officers stated this proved that troops in Gaza didn’t open fireplace on medical automobiles until they felt threatened.
The IDF additionally confirmed it was holding a PRCS medic it had detained following the incident. They didn’t affirm his title, however the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross has beforehand named him as Assad al-Nassasra.
Israel launched its marketing campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 folks had been killed and 251 others had been taken hostage.
Not less than 51,201 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, in accordance with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
