Gaza paramedic recounts lethal Israeli assault on ambulances, matches UN accusation
A Palestinian paramedic who was current at an incident wherein 15 of his colleagues had been killed in southern Gaza final month stated he witnessed Israeli troops firing at emergency automobiles that he later noticed stained with blood.
After a number of days of uncertainty concerning the whereabouts of the paramedics, Pink Crescent and United Nations officers discovered the our bodies of the 15 emergency and assist staff buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza, accusing Israeli forces of killing them. One other employee remains to be lacking.
Munther Abed, a volunteer for the Palestine Pink Crescent Society, stated he was responding to a name with two colleagues close to Rafah, within the southern Gaza Strip, on March 23 when he was detained by Israeli troopers shortly earlier than they opened hearth on different emergency automobiles.
He stated he had not been in a position to see precisely what occurred when the troopers opened hearth. However his account corresponds with assertions by officers from the Palestine Pink Crescent Society and the UN that the emergency staff from the Pink Cross, Pink Crescent, UN and Palestinian Civil Emergency service had been focused by Israeli troops.
The Israeli navy has opened an investigation into the incident, which by its account occurred when unmarked automobiles approached an Israeli place at midnight with out lights or particular markings and with out earlier co-ordination — elements it stated had made the automobiles’ advance seem suspicious.
The navy stated the troopers who opened hearth had killed a variety of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had been travelling in automobiles marked with Palestine Pink Crescent Society indicators.
The Pink Crescent describes Abed as “the lone survivor” of the incident, with the destiny of the lacking paramedic nonetheless unclear.
Abed stated he and colleagues had obtained a name to exit to assist wounded folks at round daybreak following an airstrike within the Al-Hashasheen space in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
“We moved straight away, it was me and two different colleagues. As quickly as we arrived there, we got here underneath hearth and so they detained us,” he instructed Reuters by cellphone from his home in Khan Younis, referring to capturing by Israeli troopers.
After Abed was detained, he stated he overlooked his two colleagues.
As he was standing close to the troopers, he stated he noticed different emergency automobiles approaching the Israeli troopers’ place.
“I might see the car of the Civil Emergency. The troopers started capturing on the automobiles, they fired closely,” he stated. “It was darkish and I could not see what occurred to the folks there, however they [the soldiers] fired closely. They requested me to duck down and so they had been firing closely. I felt as if the bullets had been hitting me personally.”
On Saturday, the Pink Crescent issued a video obtained from the cellphone of a paramedic discovered buried within the mass grave.
Filmed from inside a shifting car, it seems to indicate a clearly marked convoy of ambulances and a hearth truck driving at daybreak with their crimson lights flashing. After they cease by a car that had veered off the street, two rescue staff and one other man may be seen earlier than a volley of gunshots is heard.
Reuters was in a position to confirm the placement of the video close to the Tal al-Sultan space, west of Rafah metropolis in Rafah governate.
The Israeli navy stated in response to a request for remark concerning the video that the occasion on March 23 was underneath thorough examination.
“All claims, together with the documentation circulating concerning the incident, might be completely and deeply examined to know the sequence of occasions and the dealing with of the scenario,” it stated.
‘Blood on the automobiles’
It was solely after dawn that Abed, who remained held on the location the place he was initially detained, was in a position to get a clearer image of what had occurred.
“With the primary gentle of the day, issues change into clearer, I noticed the automobiles of the Civil Emergency and the Pink Crescent, the doorways of all of the automobiles had been open and there was blood on the automobiles,” he stated.
Abed stated he noticed a bulldozer dig 4 holes within the sandy floor earlier than crushing the wrecked automobiles and burying them.
“At the moment I had no clue concerning the destiny of my colleagues,” he stated.
Abed stated he was held in detention by Israeli forces for about 15 hours, throughout which era he was interrogated and crushed. He stated he noticed the help employee who remains to be lacking, detained by Israeli troopers.
“They requested me the place I had been on Oct. 7, they had been saying Palestinians are terrorists, and that we’re all terrorists. They requested many private questions, too, about me and my household,” he stated. “I felt I used to be about to die.”
Ultimately he stated the troopers made some checks on him earlier than they determined to launch him.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestine Pink Crescent Society, confirmed that Abed was working for the group as a volunteer and was in Rafah that day with the mission.
“He’s the lone survivor, the 2 colleagues who had been with him had been killed. There’s one other colleague who remains to be lacking,” Farsakh instructed Reuters.
“He had no clue at that second whether or not his colleagues had been martyred or had been wounded and saved.”
