skip to main content

Red Crescent video appears to contradict IDF account of medic attack

The video released by PRCS appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing
The video released by PRCS appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing

A video recovered from the mobile phone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, the Palestine Red Crescent has said, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts.

The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on 23 March in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The Israeli military has said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, insisting they fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off.

But the video released by PRCS appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

The video, six minutes and 42 seconds long in full and apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red firetruck and ambulances driving through the night amid constant automatic gunfire.

The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.

In the video, the voices of two medics are heard - one saying "the vehicle, the vehicle", and another responding: "It seems to be an accident."

Seconds later a volley of gunfire breaks out and the screen goes black.

PRCS said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.

"This video unequivocally refutes the occupation's claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings," PRCS said in a statement.

"The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative."

Hamas, in a statement, called the video a "damning piece of evidence of the occupation's brutality".

"It also demonstrates a deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and concealing the truth," Hamas said.

Those killed included eight PRCS staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

Their bodies were found buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

OCHA said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of attacks.

According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.

In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.

The deaths of the aid workers sparked international condemnation.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were "in their uniforms, still wearing gloves" when they were found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, saying it raised concerns about possible "war crimes" by the Israeli military.

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," Mr Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

He called for an "independent, prompt and thorough investigation".

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered "in sand and cloth" to avoid damage until coordination with international organisations could be arranged for their retrieval.

The military said it was investigating the attack.