Israel’s military has admitted its soldiers made mistakes over the killing of 15 paramedics and emergency workers in southern Gaza last month.
The convoy of Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances and a fire truck came under fire near Rafah on 23 March.
Israel originally claimed troops opened fire because the convoy approached “suspiciously” in darkness without headlights or flashing lights. It said movement of the vehicles had not been previously co-ordinated or agreed with the army.
Mobile phone footage, filmed by one of the paramedics who was killed, showed the vehicles did have lights on as they answered a call to help wounded people. The video showed they had their emergency lights clearly flashing.
In a briefing to journalists on Saturday night, an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) official said that soldiers had “mistakenly” identified the paramedics as a threat and that the incident was under “thorough investigation”.
He added that all claims “will be examined thoroughly and in depth in order to understand the conduct of the incident”.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a UN worker were killed in the shooting. The only known survivor of the incident, Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, also said he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.
“According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over,” he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.
The UN and Palestinian Red Crescent have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Civil Defence, most of them while on duty, as well as more than 1,000 health workers, according to the UN.
The Gaza war was triggered by a Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 people taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 50,000 Palestinians according to the enclave’s health ministry and forced 90 per cent of its 2.3 million residents from their homes.
Reuters contributed to this report
