A Palestinian paramedic who was present in an incident, in which 15 of his colleagues were killed in southern Gaza last month, said that he saw how Israeli troops shoot on emergency vehicles, which he later colored with blood.
After several days of uncertainty about the whereabouts of the paramedics, Red Crescent and officials found the bodies of the 15 emergencies and auxiliary workers who were buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza and the Israeli forces accused of killing them. Another worker is still missing.
Munther Abed, a volunteer of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, said that he reacted to other emergency vehicles on a call with two colleagues near Rafah in southern Gaza Strip on March 23 when he was opened by Israeli soldiers.
He said he didn’t see exactly what had happened when the soldiers opened the fire. However, his report corresponds to the claims of Palestine Red Crescent Society and the UN that the rescue workers from the Red Cross, the Red Half moon, the UN and the Palestinian community service have been targeted by Israeli troops.
The Israeli military has opened an investigation by the incident, in which vehicles that have not been marked by its account in an Israeli position in the dark without lights or special markings and without earlier coordination, the factors they said had made the progress of the vehicles suspicious.
The military said that the soldiers who opened fire had killed a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who were traveling in vehicles that were marked with signs of the red crescent company.
The red crescent moon describes Abed as “the lonely survivor” of the incident, although the fate of the lack of paramedic is still unclear.
Abed said he and colleagues received a call to help wounded people at dawn after helping Al-Hashen in the area of Al-Hashen near the border with Egypt, in the Al-Hashen area in Rafah.
“We moved immediately, I and two other colleagues. As soon as we arrived there, we got under fire and they arrested,” he said to Reuters from his house in Khan Younis and referred to the shootout by Israeli soldiers.
After Abed was arrested, he said that he had lost sight of his two colleagues.
When he was close to the soldiers, he said that he saw other emergency vehicles that approached the position of the Israeli soldiers.
“I could see the civilian emergency vehicle. The soldiers started shooting the vehicles, they fired strongly,” he said. “It was dark and I couldn’t see what happened to the people there, but they (the soldiers) fired heavily. They asked me to duck me and they fired heavily. I had the feeling that the balls were going to beat me personally.”
On Saturday, the red crescent moon gave a video that was preserved by the cell phone of a paramedic buried in the mass grave.
Turned from a moving vehicle, it seems to show a clearly marked convoy from ambulance and a fire engine that drives at dawn and flashed its red lights. After stopping at a vehicle that had deviated from the street, two rescue workers and another man can be seen before a volley of shots can be heard.
Reuters was able to check the location of the video near the Tal-Al-Sultan area west of Rafah City in Rafah.
In response to a request for a comment on the video, the Israeli military said that the event on March 23 was a thorough exam.
“All claims, including the documentation that circulate through the incident, are thoroughly and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and how to deal with the situation,” it said.
“Blood on the vehicles”
It was only after DAFENBRABL, which had held a clearer picture of what had happened at the place where he was originally arrested.
“With the first light of the day, things became clearer, I saw the vehicles of civilian emergency and the red crescent moon, the doors of all vehicles were open and there was blood on the vehicles,” he said.
Abed said that he had a bulldozer four holes dig in the sandy floor before crushing the destroyed vehicles and buried them.
“At that time I had no idea about the fate of my colleagues,” he said.
Abed said he was held in custody by the Israeli forces for about 15 hours while he was interrogated and beaten during this time. He said he saw the helper who was still missing, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers.
“They asked me where I was on October 7th, they said Palestinians were terrorists and we are all terrorists. They also asked many personal questions about me and my family,” he said. “I felt that I would die.”
Finally he said the soldiers had made some checks about him before deciding to leave him free.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, confirmed that Abed worked for the organization as a volunteer and was a mission in Rafah that day.
“He is the only survivor, the two colleagues who were with him, were killed. There is another colleague who is still missing,” Farsakh told Reuters.
“At that moment he had no idea whether his colleagues were matted or were wounded and saved.”
