There was a fear in the voices of the Palestinian rescuers, as their convoy moved along the dark roads near his Rafah to the place where a team of their colleagues was wounded.
It was the night of March 23 and even for the dangerous Gaza, it seemed that those in the vehicles realized that their rescue mission involves very dangerous.
“These miscarriages – they are targeting our teams only,” said Radwan’s rurals, a paramedic riding in one of the main vehicles that managed his phone. The full footage was released later by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The Radwan team was heading to the other group He was attacked a few hours before the Israeli army.
By early morning, he and 14 others – all of them paramedics or relief workers, according to the United Nations – have died, and their bodies were buried in a mass grave along with their broken vehicles.
For more than a week and a half, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) justified the attack, insisting on the presence of many Hamas militants among the first respondents and that their vehicles were acting suspicious and driving without the emergency lights.
But Palestinian defenders say that the emerging video evidence – including a video clip from Radwan’s phone, located at the scene of the accident – and eyewitnesses refer to the Israeli version of the events mentioned at best, flagrant negligence, and in the worst case, are frankly lying about what happened that night.
The footage seems to show the last moments
In the Radwan video footage, which was first released by the New York Times, the Palestinian Red Crescent workers in their cars talk to each other about their concern, so that one of them abandoned the end of life prayer, because they were unable to contact the missing members of the former rescue crew.
In aware of the danger of an Israeli ambush, someone suggested forming several ambulances in a line and ensuring that all flashing emergency lamps are operated to ensure the highest vision.
But it will not make a difference. Seconds after the ambulance convoy stopped next to a compressed vehicle on the side of the road, paramedics coming from automatic weapons fire were damaged.
“They surrounded us! They kill us!” One of the paramedics hears shouting on the video.
Others hear to pray for their lives, including Radwan.
He said: ”
There is more shooting, then silence. It took a full week before a team of the United Nations could reach the region and recover the bodies.
There is no explanation for the initial misleading information
For more than 10 days after the attack and in the multiple surroundings of the Israeli army, the officials insisted that the Palestinian vehicles were traveling without lights.
they He also said An ambush killed nine “terrorists”, without providing any direct evidence of their claims. Later, the Israeli Defense Army said that six members of the armed groups were among the dead, but again they did not provide evidence.
On Monday, at a press conference in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which killed eight of its members in the attack, issued a full 19 minutes of the final video of Rawan, with English translations. The video was found on the Radwan phone, the organization said, which was recovered from his body more than a week.
After issuing the full video, Israeli government spokesman David Menker gave an updated account and clarified the position of the Israeli Defense Army.
“While a share against terrorist activity, the Israeli Defense Army soldiers opened fire from a distance in the vehicles that were moving dramatically in their direction,” Menker said.
“What did Hamas terrorists do in ambulances?” He said.
Weekend
After that, during the weekend in a hurry surrounding, an Israeli army spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted that the paramedics “were accidentally identified” as a threat and said that the army would achieve the cause.
In another Social media after the twoThe Israeli Defense Army said that its initial investigation decided that its forces had been launched because of a “imagined threat” and that the public fact -finding mechanism of public positions would be deeper.
The Israeli army changes its narration to kill 15 emergency workers in Gaza after a video clip published by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, showing paramedics in the emergency vehicles carrying a mark, with their lights, as it was launched by the soldiers. Israel initially claimed that the soldiers had opened fire on the vehicles that approached their “suspicious” position in the dark without lights or signs, which contradicts the only survivor account known to the accident.
However, none of the statement explained the reason for the IDF initially released misleading information and only changed its story after publishing the Radwan video.
“We ask the Israelis about the reason for their death,” said Younis Al -Khatib, president of the association. “They were wearing their equipment (safety). The lights (ambulance) were working.
“Why did you destroy ambulances after killing them? Why did you try to dig deep (in the sand) and hide ambulances? Why did the bodies hide?”
On Monday, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, added his voice to an increasing choir of calls for an independent external investigation. “It is the smell of covering up,” he said. Olmert told the BBC that the enemy has long been to the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Israeli army has a lot to explain it.
“It seems bad, its smell is bad and bothers me.”
In briefing, an IDF spokesman said that the soldiers did not expect the convoy to stop its place on the road and was surprised by the people’s view of going out and running; Later, he said that a bodies were approved in mass graves to protect them from wild animals.
“There was no incident in which the Israeli Defense Army tried to cover up. On the contrary, they immediately called the United Nations,” the spokeswoman said. The Israeli army could not explain the reason for the burial of ambulances.
Naji Waheed
Munther Jihad ABED, 27, told one of the attacks, CBC Freelance Mohamed El Saife that the IDF had not made any effort to check what they were shooting.
He said in an interview near Khan Yunis: “There was a heavy shooting on us, on our car.” “I haven’t heard anything from my colleagues – not a voice, except for their last breath. I saw death.”
At the Ramallah News Conference, Red Crescent officials said that the Israeli Defense Army soldiers have intentionally chose not to confirm this, although there were many opportunities to do so.
“It was not one incident, it was multiple attacks,” said the spokesman for the Red Crescent.
“I started targeting the ambulance, which you can see (on the video) on the side of the road. Later, you see the moment the ambulance convoy targeted, and finally the third ambulance attack was the fourth ambulance, which came to support the other side.”
“This stage of war is less popular”
Israel has repeatedly accused of targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the past 18 months of the war in the region.
In one of the bloody incidents, in February 2025, the Israeli Defense Army killed 112 people waiting for a line in Gaza City. Almost at the same time, A committee of United Nations experts The “repeated Israeli massacres” condemned, including attacks on humanitarian aid convoys.
The death of Israel Yich Dean It mentioned last July More than 664 complaints were informed of the behavior of the Israeli army over a period of 10 years, only six percent led to the investigation and only ended in an indictment.
The group concluded to conduct the army’s evaluation used in such investigations “refraining from conducting an appropriate and effective evaluation.”
While the mass deaths of Palestinian civilians have generated intense international anger, especially from humanitarian groups, and within Israel, the criticism and practices of the Israeli army were generally silent.
The activist Sari Michaili, with the Israeli Human Rights Group, says that the deadly incident with paramedics may be a larger test of the IDF.
“This stage of the war is less popular,” she told CBC News in an interview.
“I think that many Israelis understand that military action will not restore the hostages alive. Because more people are ready to criticize this war, people are ready to be more critical of the things that occur in the war, and that killing paramedics is one of these things.”
Whether this means that there will be repercussions, it is another issue, says Michaeli.
US President Donald Trump supported Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and made his own attempts to undermine the work of the International Criminal Court, a possible international mechanism to investigate the death of paramedics.
Last year, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Trump imposed the court and its main prosecutor.
“The International Criminal Court does not seem to have tremendous influence at the present time as it can be used for investigation or trial this case,” said Michaeli.
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