Israel probe finds no 'indiscriminate fire' in killing of Gaza medics

An Israeli military investigation on Sunday concluded that its troops did not use "indiscriminate fire" in the killing of 15 emergency responders in Gaza, but found failures and announced plans to dismiss a field commander.

The paramedics and emergency workers were shot dead by Israeli forces while on a rescue mission on 23 March near the southern Gaza city of Rafah and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS).

Initially, the military claimed that soldiers opened fire on vehicles approaching their position in the dark without emergency lights or markings, deeming them "suspicious". 

However, video footage recovered from the mobile phone of one of the victims and released by the PRCS contradicted this account. The video showed emergency workers in uniform, operating clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks with lights on, being fired upon by soldiers.

The military said on Sunday that a commanding officer would to be reprimanded for his "overall responsibility for the incident". A deputy commander would be dismissed due to being the field commander and for providing an "incomplete and inaccurate report" of the incident.

"The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident," the military said in a statement.

"The examination determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an operational misunderstanding by the troops, who believed they faced a tangible threat from enemy forces. The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting."

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had executed the medics, some of whom were handcuffed, before burying them underneath their crushed ambulances in Rafah.

Younis al-Khatib, president of the Red Crescent in the occupied West Bank, said an autopsy of the victims' bodies revealed that "all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill".

The Israeli military claimed the PRCS vehicles were being used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

"The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them," the military said in a summary of the probe.

"The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting."

The PRCS rejected the findings of the investigation, denouncing the report as "full of lies".

"The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different," Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.