The Israeli army has provided new details that changed its initial account of the slaughter of 15 emergency employees near the southern city of Rafah Gaza last month, but said that researchers were still examining the evidence.
The 15 paramedics and those who respond to the emergencies were killed on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave, where their bodies were found a week later by United Nations officers and the Palestine Red Crescana. Another man is still missing.
The military said that the soldiers had opened fire to vehicles approaching their position « suspicious » in the dark without lights or marks. He said that nine Hamas and Islamic jihad militants were killed in traveling in Palestinian crescent vehicles.
But the video was recovered from one of the dead men and published by The Palestinian Red Crescent, he showed emergency workers with their uniforms and with clearly marked firefighters and trucks, with their lights on, being fired by soldiers.
The only known survivor of the incident, the Palestinian crescent paramèdic Munther Abed, also said that he had seen soldiers open a fire in clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
An Israeli military official said that at the end of Saturday, researchers were examining the video and that the conclusions were presented to the army commanders on Sunday.
They do not mention lights on vehicles
He said that the initial report received from the field did not describe lights, but that researchers were looking for « operational information » and that they tried to understand if this was due to an error of the person who made the initial report.
« What we currently understand is the person who gives the initial account is wrong. We are trying to understand why. »
The Israeli media reported the military reported that the troops had identified at least six of the 15 deaths as members of militant groups. However, the official refused to provide any proof or detail of how the identifications were made, saying that he did not want to share classified information.
“The investigation is not over”
« According to our information, there were terrorists, but this investigation is not over, » he told journalists at the informative session at the end of Saturday.
The United Nations and Palestinian red floods have called for independent investigation into the slaughter of paramedics.
Red Crescent officials and the United Nations have said that 17 paramedics and emergency workers of the red grown, the Civil Emergency Service and the UN had been sent to respond to the reports of injuries to Israeli air attacks.
Apart from Abed, who was detained for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.
The UN said last week that the information available stated that a team was killed by Israeli forces, and other emergency crew and help were killed after the other for several hours, while searching for their missing companions.
Vehicles stained with air surveillance
The military official said that the initial findings of the investigation showed that the troops had opened fire to a vehicle at about four in the morning, killing two members of Hamas’s internal security forces and taking another prisoner, which the official said he had admitted under Hamas.
As time passed, several vehicles passed the road until 6 am, saying that the troops received a word of air surveillance that a group suspected of vehicles was approaching.
« They feel that this is another incident like what happened at 4 am and they opened fire, » said the official.
The soldiers opened fire from afar ”
He said that the air surveillance images showed that the troops were at some distance when they opened fire and denied the reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the parapedians and fired them a short distance.
« It’s not closely. They opened fire from afar, » he said. « There is no abuse of the people there. »
He said that the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying -at least some as militants. However, he did not explain what evidence they had caused the evaluation.
« And in their eyes they had a meeting with terrorists, which is a successful encounter with terrorists. »
He said that the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with a camouflage network until they could recover.
According to health officials
Israeli hit in the Gaza Strip killed at least 19 people during the night and Sunday, according to local health officials.
The strikes struck a tent and a house in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing five men, five women and five children, according to Nasser Hospital, who received the bodies.
And the Israeli Shelling killed at least four people in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The latest military strikes took place, as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the United States to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Monday Netanyahu will meet with Trump for the second time since Trump began his last term in January. The Prime Minister said they would discuss the war in Gaza and the new 17 percent rate imposed on Israel, part of a wide global decision of the new -American administration.
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