It was a massacre: 15 emergency workers, butchered in cold blood by personnel from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in southern Gaza, on March 23.聽
It all came to light that the IDF did not intend anyone to see, filmed by Red Crescent paramedic Rifaat Radwan in the last minutes of his life. Caught red-handed, the wires and levers of justification, mendacity and qualification began to move. The pattern of institutional response is a well-rehearsed one.
First came the official claim that the troops only opened fire because the convoy approached them 鈥渟uspiciously鈥, enshrouded in darkness, with no headlights or evidence of flashing lights. The movement of the convoy had not, it was said, been cleared and coordinated with the IDF, which had been alerted by operators of an overhead UAV (drone).
Soldiers had previously fired on a car containing, according to the Israeli account, three Hamas members. When that vehicle was approached by the ambulances, IDF personnel assumed they were threatened, despite lacking any evidence that the emergency workers were armed.
On exiting the vehicles, gunfire ensues. Radwan鈥檚 final words: 鈥淭he Israelis are coming, the Israeli soldiers are coming.鈥
Then came the qualification. With the video now very public, the IDF was forced to admit that they had been mistaken in the initial assessment that the lights of the ambulance convoy had been switched off, blaming it on the sketchy testimony of soldiers. Also evident are clear markings on the vehicles, with the paramedics wearing hi-vis uniforms.
After being shot, the bodies of the 15 dead workers were unceremoniously buried in sand 鈥 鈥渋n a brutal and disregarding manner that violates human dignity,鈥 to the Red Crescent 鈥 supposedly to protect them from the ravages of wildlife. Their vehicles were crushed by an armoured D9 bulldozer to clear the road.
Allegations that some of the bodies had their hands tied and were shot at close range, suggesting a willingness on the part of the military to conceal their misdeeds. The IDF has countered by claiming that the United Nations was informed of the location of the bodies.
The Palestine Red Crescent society : the paramedics were shot with the clear intention of slaying them. 鈥淲e cannot disclose everything we know,鈥 Dr Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Red Crescent in the West Bank, 鈥渂ut I will say that all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill鈥.
The IDF, after a breezy inquiry, that it 鈥渞evealed that the force opened fire due to a sense of threat following a previous exchange of fire in the area. Also, six Hamas terrorists were identified among those killed in the incident.鈥
This hardly dispels the reality that those shot were unarmed and showed no hostile intent.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Palestinian rescuers have of those killed: eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Palestinian Civil Defence and one employee from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The OCHA insists that the first team comprised rescuers rather than Hamas operatives. On being sought by additional paramedic and emergency personnel, they, too, were attacked by the IDF.
The findings of the probe into the killings were presented on April 7 to the IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir by the chief of the Southern Command, Major General Yaniv Asor. On doing so, Zamir then that the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism be used to 鈥渄eepen and complete鈥 the effort.
That particular fact-finding body is risibly described as independent, despite being an extension of the IDF. Self-investigation remains a standard norm for allegations of impropriety.
Since October 7, 2023, the death toll of health workers in the Gaza Strip has been impressively grim, reaching 1060. Israel destroyed health facilities, launching聽聽on health services.
The World Health Organization in February found that a mere 50% of hospitals were partially functional. Primary health care facilities were found to be 41% functional. Medical personnel have been harassed, arbitrarily detained and subjected to mistreatment. A from Healthcare Workers Watch published in February identified 384 cases of unlawful detention since October 7, 2023, with 339 coming from the Gaza Strip and 45 from the West Bank.
In the of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 1967, 鈥淭his is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy and fully annihilate the realisation of the right to health in Gaza.鈥
The IDF, which claims to be fastidious in observing the canons of international law, continues to dispel such notions in killing civilians and health workers. It also continues to insist that its soldiers could never be guilty of a conscious massacre or culpable for a blatant crime.
The bodies of 15 health workers suggest otherwise.
[Binoy Kampmark lectures at RMIT University.]