Source : Perth Now news
The Israeli government has acknowledged professional failures and violations of orders in its assessment of next week’s killing of 15 disaster workers in the Gaza Strip but says there was no attempt to conceal the tragedy, despite dismissing a field commander for providing an false report.
The doctors and other rescue personnel were shot dying on March 23 near the southern Gaza Strip area of Rafah and buried in a deep grave where their bodies were found a week later by representatives from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
A dominant agent is to be reprimanded and a deputy chief dismissed over the incident, the government said.
It did not say if someone had face criminal charges.
” The investigation identified several professional problems, breaches of purchases and a loss to completely report the incident,” the government said in a statement.
” The flames in the first two instances resulted from an administrative mistake by the soldiers, who believed they faced a substantial risk from enemy troops. The second incident involved a violation of commands during a fight environment,” it said.
A picture recovered from the cellular phone of one of the dead people and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed armed emergency responders and plainly marked ambulances and fire cars, with their signals on, being fired on by men.
What happened on March 23: read the full summary of the investigation, conducted by the General Staff Fact Finding Mechanism, into the incident involving rescue teams and vehicles in Gaza: https ://t. co/GFapB5xLeH— Israel Defense Forces ( @IDF) April 20, 2025
Red Crescent and UN officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes.
The deaths of the 15 emergency responders sparked international condemnation.
Israeli authorities at first claimed that the medics ‘ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked.
The military on Sunday said the deputy commander did not initially recognise the vehicles as ambulances due to “poor night visibility” and ordered troops to open fire on a group of individuals who emerged from a fire truck and ambulances.
The deputy commander perceived there to be a threat as an hour earlier troops had opened fire on another vehicle that they determined to belong to Hamas, the military said, but did not say how the soldiers had identified it as” Hamas vehicle”.
Paramedic Munther Abed, one of the responders who was detained by the military and later released, has said soldiers opened fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
The Red Cross said on April 13 another Palestinian emergency responder was being held by Israeli authorities.
The military has not commented on the claim.
The military has insisted that six of the 15 emergency responders killed were later identified as” Hamas terrorists”.
Hamas has rejected the accusation.
About 15 minutes after the soldiers opened fire on the group of emergency responders, the military said that soldiers fired at a Palestinian UN vehicle.
The military blamed “operational errors in breach of regulation” for the incident.
” At dawn, it was decided to gather and cover the bodies to prevent further harm and clear the vehicles from the route in preparation for civilian evacuation,” the military said, adding that removing the bodies was reasonable” under the circumstances” but that crushing the vehicles was “wrong”.
” In general, there was no attempt to conceal the event, which was discussed with international organisations and the UN, including co-ordination for the removal of bodies,” it said.
The military said that a commanding officer would be reprimanded for his “overall responsibility for the incident”.
A deputy commander would be dismissed from his position due to being the field commander and for providing an “incomplete and inaccurate report” of the incident.
with AP and DPA
