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

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — An Israeli military probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza on Sunday acknowledged operational failures and said a field commander would be dismissed, but found there was no "indiscriminate fire" by its troops.

The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to a distress call near the southern Gaza city of Rafah in the early hours of March 23, just days after Israel launched a renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.

The incident has drawn international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

"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 its findings.

It said "fifteen Palestinians were killed, six of whom were identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists," revising an earlier claim that nine of those killed were militants.

The Israeli military “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians," the probe added.

Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.

'Regrets'

Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the site of the shooting in Rafah's Tal Al Sultan area, in what OCHA described as a mass grave.

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

The Israeli military, in the summary, said "the examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting," amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.

Days after the incident, the army said its soldiers fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles", with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.

But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military's account.

The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.

The military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops had buried the bodies and vehicles "to prevent further harm."

"There was no attempt to conceal the event," it said.

 'Failures'

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

It added that a deputy commander "will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief".

Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who has repeatedly advocated for continuing the war in Gaza, said the commander's dismissal was a "grave mistake".

The military on Sunday said there were three incidents involving shooting in the area on that day.

In the first incident troops fired at a vehicle they identified as a Hamas vehicle.

In the second incident, an hour later, the troops fired "on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances very close to the area in which the troops were operating, after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat," the military said.

"The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle's passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire."

The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle "due to operational errors in breach of regulations," the military said.

The probe "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," it added.

Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP earlier he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops. One other medic has survived the attack and is reportedly in Israeli custody.