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Israel's military admitted that video filmed on a phone by one of 15 Palestinian medics killed in southern Gaza by Israeli troops last month contradicts earlier claims that the vehicles did not have emergency lights on when the troops opened fire. That has exposed yet more holes in the military's version of events, with officials saying soldiers opened fire believing the medics were gunmen.
An Israeli military official said on Saturday evening that a military inquiry would be presented to the chief of the general staff on Sunday. The escalated investigation came amid mounting doubts over the army's account of the incident, including why the ambulances were fired on, how the bodies were disposed of, whether troops attempted to cover up their actions and whether the UN was communicated with in good faith. Those questions have led observers to say the attack could amount to a war crime.
The video, obtained by The New York Times, shows Palestine Red Crescent Society and civil defence teams driving slowly with their emergency lights flashing and logos visible. They stopped to help an ambulance that had come under fire.
The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics head towards the ambulance.
Their vehicles immediately come under fire, with the attack going on for more than five minutes with short pauses. The person filming with the phone can be heard praying.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he says.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six civil defence workers and a UN staff member were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23, with Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel Al Sultan, a district in the southern city of Rafah. Troops then drove bulldozers over the bodies, burying them. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out the bodies.
Red Crescent vice president Marwan Jilani said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its killed staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN distributed the video to the UN Security Council.
Asked about the footage, the Israeli military said on Saturday that the incident was “under thorough examination”. It had earlier said it opened fire on the vehicles because they were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals.
An Israeli military official said on Saturday that the account was “mistaken".
The head of the Red Crescent, Younes Al Khatib, called for an independent investigation. “We don’t trust any of the army investigations,” he told a briefing at the UN on Friday.
One of the medics, Assaad Al Nassasra, is still missing, the Red Crescent said. Mr Al Khatib said the killed men had been “targeted at close range” and that a forensic autopsy report would be released soon.
Israel has accused Hamas of moving and hiding its fighters inside ambulances and emergency vehicles, as well as in hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, arguing this justifies strikes on them. Medical personnel largely deny these accusations.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the Red Crescent and Gaza's civil defence, most of them while on duty, as well as more than 1,000 health workers, the UN has said. The Israeli military rarely investigates such incidents.
The phone video shows a rescue convoy of Red Crescent and civil defence vehicles that was sent out after contact was lost with the stricken ambulance. Taken from the dashboard of one vehicle, it shows several ambulances and a fire engine moving down a road through a barren area in the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs are flashing.
They arrive at an ambulance on the side of the road and stop next to it, their lights still flashing. No Israeli troops are visible.
Three men in orange civil defence clothing can be seen getting out of the vehicles and walking towards the stationary ambulance. A shot rings out and one of the men appears to fall. Gunfire then erupts.
The man holding the phone appears to scramble out of the car and on to the ground, but the screen goes black, though the audio continues. The gunfire goes on for nearly five and a half minutes, with long, heavy barrages followed by silences punctuated by individual shots and shouts and screams.
The Israeli military says that after the shooting, troops determined they had killed a Hamas operative named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other militants. However, none of the 15 dead medics has that name, and no other bodies are known to have been found at the site.
The military has not said what happened to Mr Shobaki's body or released the names of the other alleged militants. It said Israel was “working to bring evidence” that Hamas operatives were killed.
Red Crescent spokesman Nebal Farsakh said Israeli soldiers had “opened fire frantically and hysterically” at the medics.
“This video unequivocally refutes the occupation's claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings,” the organisation said.
