New video evidence disputes Israeli army's account of medic killings
New video evidence relating to the killing of 15 Palestinian rescue workers by Israeli forces has emerged, contradicting the Israeli account of the attack on a medical convoy in Rafah last week.
The footage, which was retrieved from a phone belonging to one of the medics who was killed, shows the Israeli army attacking clearly marked Red Crescent ambulances that had their emergency signal lights on, and emergency medical workers wearing reflective vests.
Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a news conference on Friday at the United Nations headquarters that they had presented the nearly seven-minute recording to the UN Security Council.
Last week, the humanitarian workers went missing after responding to a distress call from civilians wounded in an Israeli attack in Rafah. All contact was lost with them and the medics were found days later in a mass grave, two to three metres deep, with their bodies riddled with gunshots, according the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza.
'They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives," said Jonathan Whittall, head of then UN's humanitarian affairs office in Palestine.
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The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had executed the medics, some of whom were handcuffed, before burying them underneath their crushed ambulances in southern Gaza's Rafah.
'Mum, forgive me'
The Israeli military said in an initial statement that the vehicles were struck because they were being used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Both groups deny using ambulances for military purposes.
The new evidence contradicts the Israeli army's account that claimed that the emergency vehicles "were identified advancing suspiciously towards [Israeli] troops without headlights or emergency signals", prompting Israeli forces to shoot.
The video shows rescue workers exiting a fire truck and an ambulance and approaching a disabled ambulance that had veered off the road. Intense gunfire suddenly erupts and can be seen striking the convoy. Voices of distressed aid workers and soldiers shouting commands in Hebrew can be heard in the background.
A medical worker can be heard saying that Israeli forces are riddling their vehicles with bullets.
He then asks his mother for forgiveness, saying: "Mum, forgive me. This is the path I chose - I wanted to help people. Forgive me, Mum. I swear, I only took this path to help people."
Gaza's government media office said in a statement that the revelations "expose the lies of the Israeli occupation army" and has demanded an independent international investigation into the killings.
The workers include eight paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six members of the Palestinian Civil Defence search-and-rescue teams, and one UN staff member.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, said at least one of them had their legs bound, another was decapitated and a third topless.
"This grave was located just metres from their vehicles, indicating the [Israeli] occupation forces removed the victims from the vehicles, executed them and then discarded their bodies in the pit," Basal said.
The killings are the single deadliest attack on Red Cross/Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"My son volunteered to help the wounded. He did not receive a salary. He loved his work and he was dedicated to it," the mother of one of the paramedics, Ashraf Nasser Abu Labda, told Middle East Eye last week.
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