Israel walks back its account of the killing of 15 medics in Gaza after
video seems to contradict it
[April 07, 2025]
By EDITH M. LEDERER, WAFAA SHURAFA and LEE KEATH
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Israeli military backtracked on its account of
the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after
phone video appeared to contradict its claims that their vehicles did
not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the
Gaza Strip.
The military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were
“advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or
emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking late Saturday
on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that account
was “mistaken.”
The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defense teams driving
slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as
they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier.
The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening
manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.
Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire, which goes
on for more than five minutes with brief pauses. The owner of the phone
can be heard praying.
“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,”
he cries, his voice weak.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a U.N.
staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli
troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the
southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops then bulldozed over the bodies along
with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and
rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later to dig out
the bodies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society's vice president, Marwan Jilani,
said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its
slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations
distributed the video to the U.N. Security Council. The Associated Press
obtained the video from a U.N. diplomat on condition of anonymity
because it has not been made public.
One paramedic who survived, Munzer Abed, confirmed the veracity of the
video to the AP. Two block-shaped concrete structures visible in the
video are also seen in a U.N. video released Sunday showing the recovery
of the bodies from the site — a sign they are in the same location.
Asked about the video, the Israeli military said Saturday that the
incident was “under thorough examination.”
One medic remains missing
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Younes Al-Khatib,
called for an independent investigation. "We don’t trust any of the army
investigations,” he told a briefing at the U.N. on Friday.
One medic, Assaad al-Nassasra, is still missing, the Red Crescent says.
Abed said he saw al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli
troops. Al-Khatib said the organization has asked the military where it
is holding the staffer.
Al-Khatib said the slain 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 that justifies strikes on them. Medical
personnel largely deny the accusations.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 150 emergency responders from the
Red Crescent and Civil Defense, most of them while on duty, as well as
over 1,000 health workers, according to the U.N. The Israeli military
rarely investigates such incidents.
Ambulances under a barrage of Israeli fire
Ambulances started heading to Tel al-Sultan at around 3:50 a.m. on March
23, responding to reports of wounded, Jilani said. The first ambulance
returned safely with at least one casualty, he said. But, he said,
subsequent ambulances came under fire.
His hands trembling, Abed told the AP on Saturday that as his ambulance
entered the area, its siren lights were on. “All of a sudden, I am
telling you, there was direct shooting at us,” so intense that the
vehicle ground to a stop, he said.
A 10-year veteran of the Red Crescent, Abed said he was sitting in the
back seat and ducked to the floor. He said he could hear nothing from
his two colleagues in the front seat — the only others in the vehicle.
They appear to have been killed instantly.
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This frame grab from a video released by the Palestinian Red
Crescent Society, taken with a phone by one of the 15 Palestinians
medics killed, shows Red Crescent emergency vehicles, their lights
and sirens flashing and their logos clearly visible, seconds before
they came under a barrage of gunfire from Israeli army soldiers in
Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah,
early Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Palestinian Red Crescent Society via
AP)
Israeli troops, some with night goggles, dragged Abed out of the
ambulance and onto the ground, he said. They made him strip to his
underwear, beat him all over his body with their rifle butts, then
tied his hands behind his back, he said.
They interrogated him, asking him about his paramedic training and
how many people were in the ambulance with him, he said. One soldier
pressed the muzzle of his automatic rifle into his neck. Another
pressed his knife blade into Abed’s palm, almost cutting it, until a
third soldier pulled them away and warned Abed, “They’re crazy.”
Abed said he witnessed them opening fire on the next vehicles to
arrive. Soldiers forced him onto his stomach and pressed a gun into
his back, he said, and amid the shooting in the darkness, so he
could only see two Civil Defense vehicles.
Video shows medic’s terror
The phone video shows a rescue convoy of Red Crescent and Civil
Defense 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 truck moving down a road through
a barren area in the darkness. The emergency lights on their roofs
are flashing the entire way.
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.
“Lord, let them be OK,” a man in the car says. Then he cries out,
“They’re tossed around on the ground!” — apparently referring to
bodies. Three men in orange Civil Defense clothing can be seen
getting out of the vehicles and walking toward the stopped
ambulance.
A shot rings out and one of the men appears to fall. Gunfire erupts.
The man holding the phone appears to scramble out of the car and
onto 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.
Throughout, the man with the phone says over and over, “There is no
God but God and Muhammad is God’s prophet” — the profession of faith
that Muslims say when they fear they are about to die. Near the end
of the six-minute, 40-second video, voices can be heard shouting in
Hebrew. “The Jews are coming,” the man said, referring to Israeli
soldiers, before the video cuts off.
The Israeli military official asserted there was “no mistreatment,”
and said he didn’t know why the vehicles had been buried. He had no
information about the medic who remained missing.
Israel claims they found militants afterward
The Israeli military says that after the shooting, troops determined
they had killed a Hamas figure named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight
other militants. However, none of the 15 slain 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 Shobaki's body or
released the names of the other alleged militants. The Israeli
military official said Israel was “working to bring evidence” that
Hamas operatives were killed.
Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the U.N. humanitarian
office OCHA, dismissed allegations that the slain medics were Hamas
militants, saying staff had worked with the same medics previously
in evacuating patients from hospitals and other tasks.
“These are paramedic crews that I personally have met before," he
said. “They were buried in their uniforms with their gloves on. They
were ready to save lives.”
___
Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Keath from Cairo.
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Sarah
El Deeb in Cairo, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Areej
Hazboun contributed to this report.
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