The Israeli army has acknowledged flaws in its preliminary accounts of its troops’ involvement within the killing final month of 15 individuals in southern Gaza who the United Nations stated have been all paramedics and rescue employees.
The admission got here on Saturday, the day after a video obtained by The New York Occasions appeared to contradict a key a part of the army’s earlier model of occasions. Whereas the army had stated it fired on the autos after they “superior suspiciously,” the video confirmed clearly marked ambulances and a hearth truck.
The episode has drawn worldwide scrutiny and condemnation. After the blatant inconsistencies within the Israeli account have been revealed, the army appeared to maneuver extra rapidly than typical to deal with the problem. Inner army inquiries into questionable lethal episodes can drag on for months, even years.
Right here’s what we all know up to now:
The Israeli army’s model(s)
In its preliminary statements after the our bodies have been found, the army insisted its troops had opened hearth as a convoy approached them at nighttime “with out headlights or emergency indicators.”
However the video — found on the cellphone of a paramedic who was present in a mass grave — reveals that the ambulances and hearth truck had emergency lights on as Israeli forces unleashed their barrage.
The army now says the preliminary account from forces on the bottom was “mistaken.”
Navy officers had beforehand asserted that 9 of these killed have been operatives of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. They’d named solely one of many 9 and offered no proof for his or her declare.
On Saturday, a army official who briefed reporters on the preliminary findings of an inner inquiry stated at the least six of the 15 have been Hamas operatives however nonetheless didn’t present proof. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity below military guidelines.
Earlier than the encounter with the emergency autos, the official stated, reserve forces from an infantry brigade had been mendacity in ambush alongside a street to the north of the Gazan metropolis of Rafah earlier than daybreak on March 23. At 4 a.m., they killed what the official described as two Hamas safety personnel and detained a 3rd.
Two hours later, as daybreak was breaking, the emergency convoy approached the identical spot. When the rescue employees started to depart their autos, the official stated, the Israeli forces believed that they have been Hamas operatives heading for them and opened hearth from afar.
Amos Harel, a army affairs analyst for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, stated in an interview that the troopers had “good purpose to be troubled” and that it could be fallacious to imagine instantly that the case was certainly one of “homicide in chilly blood,” citing Hamas fighters’ frequent use of civilian infrastructure as cowl.
However the episode raises questions, Mr. Harel stated, concerning the troopers’ conduct and the model of occasions they reported from the bottom.
The army official denied reviews that a number of the our bodies have been discovered certain and shot at shut vary. He stated that the troops had buried the our bodies to defend them from wild animals and used heavy gear to maneuver the disabled autos off the street, mangling them.
What the help teams say
Palestine Crimson Crescent Society representatives stated final week that ambulances had set out round 3:30 a.m. on March 23 to evacuate Palestinian civilians wounded by Israeli shelling.
The Crimson Crescent stated that an ambulance and its crew had been hit by Israeli forces and that a number of extra ambulances and a hearth truck headed to the scene over the following few hours to rescue them. A U.N. automobile was additionally despatched, the United Nations stated.
Seventeen individuals have been dispatched in whole, of whom 10 have been Crimson Crescent employees, six have been emergency responders from Gaza’s civil protection service and one was a U.N. employee.
It took days to barter entry to retrieve the 15 our bodies. The Crimson Crescent stated that one medic was nonetheless lacking and that one had been detained by Israeli forces and later launched.
The Crimson Crescent stated Israel’s “focusing on” of its medics must be “thought-about a battle crime” and demanded an investigation. It added that the newest killings delivered to 27 the variety of its members killed in the course of the battle, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, with a lethal Hamas-led assault on southern Israel.
On Friday, the president of the Palestine Crimson Crescent Society, Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, advised reporters that, based mostly on autopsies and forensic proof, the emergency employees had been “focused from a really shut vary.”
Response in Israel up to now
The case has acquired broader protection in Israel because the publicity of the video. Politicians have principally remained silent, maybe ready for the army to finish its inquiry.
Mr. Harel, the army affairs analyst, stated the inquiry was a primary check for the just lately put in army chief of workers, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, concerning the army’s worldwide standing.
And the bigger query of accountability stays. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, discovered final yr that of 573 instances of suspected battle crimes in Gaza examined over the previous decade by the military, just one led to prosecution.
Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel.
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