Video reveals how Israel killed 15 aid workers in Rafah
A video footage of a paramedic whose body was found in a mass grave containing the bodies of 15 rescue workers killed by Israeli forces on March 23 in Rafah refuted the Israeli occupation’s claims that it did not randomly attack the ambulances and failed to recognize them because they were without lights or emergency signals.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday that it had retrieved a mobile phone from one of the killed paramedics, which held video material of the rescue squad.
The video, shared by the rescue service on X, shows clearly marked ambulances and a fire engine driving with their headlights and blue emergency lights switched on.
The video recording stops after less than a minute when the convoy comes under Israeli fire. However, the audio recording continues for several minutes and includes prayers spoken by the attackers as well as unintelligible shouts of command in Hebrew by the Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the unarmed rescue workers were shot at close range, contrary to the Israeli account that soldiers fired at approaching suspicious vehicles.
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 rescue service wrote on X.
The video, published by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz and cited by the New York Times, clearly showed that the ambulances and fire trucks carrying the paramedics and civil defense personnel were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on when they were fired upon by Israeli forces.
The New York Times explained that the video, which it received from a senior UN diplomat, clearly shows the ambulances and a fire truck carrying 14 rescue and civil defense personnel with their emergency lights on when they came under fire, belying Israeli claims that the vehicles were “moving erratically” without lights or warning signals.
The New York Times confirmed that it had verified the timing and location of the video, in which a paramedic’s voice is heard repeating the Shahada during the shooting.
A video released by the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service on Saturday has cast doubt over the Israeli military’s account of its killing of 15 paramedics and civilian defence workers in the Gaza Strip.
The rescue service said the Israeli military attacked an ambulance and a fire engine in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on March 23. The bodies of 14 of the men were recovered from a mass grave seven days later.
The Israeli military said at the time that its forces had opened fire on several vehicles after they approached troops in a suspicious manner, without coordination or headlights. Israeli officials said the soldiers had killed members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups.
A video released by the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service on Saturday has cast doubt over the Israeli military’s account of its killing of 15 paramedics and civilian defence workers in the Gaza Strip.
The rescue service said the Israeli military attacked an ambulance and a fire engine in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on March 23. The bodies of 14 of the men were recovered from a mass grave seven days later.
The Israeli military said at the time that its forces had opened fire on several vehicles after they approached troops in a suspicious manner, without coordination or headlights. Israeli officials said the soldiers had killed members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups.
