The Israeli military has provided new details that changed its first report on the murder of 15 rescue workers near the southern city of Rafah in the past month, but said that the investigators were still investigating the evidence.
The 15 paramedics and rescue workers were shot on March 23 and buried in a flat grave, where their corpses were found a week later by civil servants from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Heading Moon. Another man is still missing.
The military initially said that soldiers opened the fire on vehicles that approached their position “suspicious” in the dark without lights or markings. It was said that they had killed nine militants from Hamas and Islamic jihad, who traveled in Palestinian red crescent vehicles.
However, the video published by the Palestinian red crescent from the cell phone from the cell phone from the hand of one of the dead men showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and firefighters, with their lights being shot and fired by soldiers.
The only known survivor of the incident, the Palestinian Red Crescent Rettoomitic Munther Aded, also said that he had seen soldiers who opened a fire on clearly marked emergency vehicles.
An Israeli military officer said late Saturday that the investigators examined the video and that the conclusions are expected to be transferred to the army commander on Sunday.
No mention of lights on vehicles
He said that the first report received from the field did not describe any lights, but that the investigators looked at “operational information” and tried to understand whether this was due to a mistake by the person who created the first report.
“What we currently understand is the person who gives the first report. We try to understand why.”
Israeli media reported by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups. However, the official refused to provide evidence or details about how the identifications were made, and said that he did not want to share classified information.
“Investigation is not over”
“According to our information, there were terrorists there, but this investigation is not over yet,” he said reporters late Saturday at the briefing.
The UN and the Palestinian red crescent moon have called for an independent examination of the murder of the paramedics.
Red Crescent and UN officers said 17 paramedics and rescue workers from the Red Half moon, the civil amount and the United Nations were sent to react to reports on injuries to the Israeli air strikes.
Apart from Abed, which was detained for a few hours before the release, another worker is missing.
The United Nations announced last week that available information indicates that a team was killed by Israeli forces, and other emergencies and aid members were killed after several hours in a row than they were looking for their missing colleagues.
Vehicles with air monitoring discovered
The military officer said that initial knowledge from the investigation showed that troops had opened the fire on a vehicle around 4 a.m., killed two members of the Hamas internal security forces and took another prisoner who said that the officer had admitted to Hamas under questioning.
Over time, several vehicles started on the street until he said around 6 a.m. that the troops received the news of the air monitoring that a suspicious group of vehicles approached.
“You believe that this is another incident that happened at 4 a.m. and you opened the fire,” said the official.
Soldiers ‘opened the fire from afar.’
He said that the air monitoring material in the air monitoring showed that the troops were at a distance when they opened the fire, and he reported that the troops had at least tied up with handcuffs and shot up close.
“It is not close. You opened the fire from afar,” he said. “There is no abuse of the people there.”
He said the soldiers had turned to the group they shot and at least identified some of them as militant. However, he did not explain what evidence the evaluation had triggered.
“And in their eyes they had an encounter with terrorists, which is a successful encounter with terrorists.”
He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the corpses with Tarnameters until they could be restored.
Strikes against Gaza Kill 19, say health officers
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 19 people overnight and Sunday, said local health officers.
The strikes met a tent and a house in the southern city of Khan Younis and killed five men, five women and five children, according to the Nasser Hospital, which received the corpses.
And according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli shelling killed at least four people in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Nordgaza.
The recent military strikes were carried out when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drove to the USA to meet the US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu on Monday should meet Trump for the second time since Trump started his last term in January. The Prime Minister said that they would discuss the war in Gaza and the new 17 percent tariff, which has imposed Israel, part of a comprehensive global decision by the new US government.
