Israel Kills Perimedics In Cold Blood

Trigger Warning: The following article contains descriptions of war and bloodshed that may be unsettling for some people.

Mustafa Khafaja, Ezzedine Shaat, Saleh Muammar, Rifaat Radwan, Mohammed Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Labda, Mohammed Hilieh, and Raed Al-Sharif were on a mission to retrieve the bodies of people killed during an air strike Northwest of Rafa. The first ambulance arrived at the hospital safely, but contact was lost with the support ambulance at 3:30 am. An initial report from the scene said it had been shot at, and the two paramedics inside had been killed.

A convoy of five vehicles, including ambulances, civil defense trucks, and two cars from the health ministry, were sent to retrieve the bodies. That convoy then came under fire, and the Red Crescent said most of the dead were from that attack. Eight of the dead were from the Red Crescent, six from civil defence, and one was a UN employee. The vehicles were not armored but well-marked as being either from the Red Crescent or civil defense. The markings were clear and unobscured.

Dr Bashar Murad, the Red Crescent’s director of health programs, said one of the paramedics in the convoy had been on a call to his colleagues at the ambulance station when the attack took place.

“He informed us that he was injured and requested assistance and that another person was also injured,” Murad said. “A few minutes later, during the call, we heard the sound of Israeli soldiers arriving at the location, speaking in Hebrew. The conversation was about gathering the team, with statements like: ‘Gather them at the wall and bring some restraints to tie them.’ This indicated that a large number of the medical staff were still alive.”

They didn’t stay alive for long.

For its part, the Israeli military said that on March 23, troops opened fire on vehicles that were “advancing suspiciously” toward them without emergency signals. It said “an initial assessment” determined that the troops killed a Hamas operative named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other militants. Israel has struck ambulances and other emergency vehicles in the past, accusing Hamas militants of using them for transportation.

However, none of the paramedics or civil service members had that name, and no other bodies were found other than those on the aid mission. Murad said, “What is certain and very clear is that they were shot in the upper parts of their bodies, then gathered in a hole one on top of another, with sand thrown over them and buried.” he said. He said the body of one of the victims was recovered from the grave with his hands still tied.

Even the vehicles that the team had been driving were buried in the sand, giving rise to the notion that Israeli troops were well aware that they had committed a crime and made a feeble attempt to cover it up.

On Wednesday, a U.N. convoy tried to reach the site but encountered Israeli troops opening fire on people.

The convoy saw a woman who had been shot lying in the road. The dashboard video shows staff talking about retrieving the woman. Then, two people are seen walking across the road. Gunfire rings out, and they flee. One stumbles, apparently wounded, before he is shot and falls onto his face to the ground. The U.N. said the team retrieved the body of the woman and left.

Jens Lærke, an OCHA spokesperson in Geneva, said: “The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues. “They were buried under the sand, alongside their wrecked emergency vehicles – clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck and a UN car.”

“I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians,” said the IFRC Secretary-General, Jagan Chapagain. “They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked.”

“Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,” said Jonathan Whittall, with the U.N. humanitarian office OCHA, speaking at the site. “We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives.”

A giant crowd gathered on Monday outside the morgue of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as the bodies of the eight slain PRCS workers were brought out for funerals. Their bodies were laid out on stretchers wrapped in white cloth with the Red Crescent logo on it and their photos, as family and others held funeral prayers over them. Funerals for the seven others followed.

“They were killed in cold blood by the Israeli occupation, despite the clear nature of their humanitarian mission,” Raed al-Nimis, the Red Crescent spokesperson in Gaza, told the AP.

Israel has not released any comment beyond their original account of actions, which seem to be completely made up in light of what has been found at the site. Their actions in and around that area North of Gaza appear to be “shoot anything that moves,” with no regard for whether the person is Hamas or not.

Be sure that Israel will claim that any news story that paints them in a bad light, such as this one, is antisemitic. We flatly refuse that label. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) committed yet another war crime in an eighteen-month battle that has been full of them on both sides. The men who participated in that crime should be held accountable, along with their superiors. Unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen as no one has the guts to execute the arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu that has been issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

How does any of this affect you?

It was your taxes that paid for the bullets and the bombs. This is what happens when power goes unchecked.