JERUSALEM — An Israeli investigation into the killings of 15 Palestinian medics last month in Gaza by Israeli forces said Sunday that it found a chain of “professional failures” and a deputy commander will be fired — one of the most severe punishments of the 18-month war.
Israel at first claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire, but it later backtracked. Cellphone video recovered from one medic contradicted Israel’s initial account.
The military investigation found that the deputy battalion commander, “due to poor night visibility,” assessed that the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants. Video footage obtained shows the ambulances had lights flashing and logos visible as they pulled up to help another ambulance that came under fire earlier. The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward it.
Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire that goes on for more than five minutes with brief pauses.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a U.N. staffer were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Troops bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue workers were able to reach the site a week later.
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said the men were “targeted at close range.” The Israeli military said the examination found “no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting.”
It said the Palestinians were killed due to an “operational misunderstanding” by Israeli forces, and that a separate incident 15 minutes later, when Israeli soldiers shot at a Palestinian U.N. vehicle, was a breach of orders.
The deputy commander who will be dismissed was the first to open fire and the rest of the soldiers also started shooting, the investigation said. It said the soldiers were 65 to 100 feet from the road when the ambulances pulled up.
The findings asserted that six of those killed were Hamas militants — it did not give their names — and said some of the others were originally misidentified as Hamas. Israel’s military initially said nine were militants. The Civil Defense is part of the Hamas-run government.
No paramedic was armed and no weapons were found in any vehicle, Maj. Gen Yoav Har-Even, in charge of the military’s investigative branch, told journalists.
