0:00

On March 23rd, the death toll

0:02

in Gaza surpassed 50 ,000 people

0:04

killed by Israeli fire in the

0:06

war with Hamas. This is

0:08

the story of 15 people who were

0:10

killed the same day. It was

0:12

just five days after Israel had ended

0:14

a ceasefire and resumed attacks on Gaza.

0:17

There were airstrikes across the territory. In

0:20

the south, Israeli troops advanced on

0:22

the ground, which is where they encountered

0:24

the crew of emergency workers and

0:27

ambulances and a fire truck. The

0:29

troops opened fire and killed the 15

0:31

paramedics and rescue workers. At

0:33

first, the Israeli military said

0:35

the vehicles were advancing suspiciously

0:38

toward troops without headlights or

0:40

emergency signals. It said

0:42

the soldiers had eliminated a number of

0:44

Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. And

0:46

that is where the story might have

0:48

ended. Except

0:52

a recording was unearthed days later from

0:54

the phone of one of the

0:56

paramedics, and it disproved the Israeli military's

0:58

account. That showed very

1:00

clearly. The

1:03

cars, the vehicles of

1:05

the ambulances had their lights on.

1:08

The fire brigade truck had

1:10

its lights on. And

1:13

the silence. You hear the silence. That's

1:15

Marwan Jelani, vice president of

1:17

the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

1:19

He said his organization had presented

1:22

the video to the United Nations

1:24

Security Council and called for an

1:26

independent investigation. We have

1:28

never seen an Israeli

1:30

investigation that resulted

1:32

in any accountability whatsoever.

1:35

After the video became public,

1:37

Israel did conduct an investigation and

1:39

released the results over the

1:41

weekend. It blamed the

1:43

killings on an operational misunderstanding

1:45

and cited professional failures. Consider

1:50

this. In more than 18

1:52

months of war, it has been rare

1:55

for the Israeli military to acknowledge failure. Coming

1:57

up, we hear from one of the survivors

1:59

of the attack. From

2:04

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Podcast. Palestinian

3:25

officials say nearly 140 rescue workers

3:27

have been killed on the job

3:29

in Gaza during the war. The

3:31

attack in March is notable because it's

3:34

one of the very few that the

3:36

Israeli military investigated. NPR's Aya

3:38

Batrawi took a closer look at the

3:40

attack and Israel's changing story about what happened.

3:42

So Aya, if you can just start

3:44

from the beginning, what do you know about

3:46

what happened on March 23rd? It

3:48

started with Israel shattering the ceasefire,

3:51

and already hundreds of people had been killed

3:53

in airstrikes and Israeli troops were re -entering

3:55

parts of Gaza they'd withdrawn from earlier. And

3:58

in the south, the offensive, the

4:00

ground offensive there, was overwhelming, and it

4:02

was spreading across all of Rafah. So this

4:04

was a Sunday, it was before dawn,

4:06

when a team of Palestinian rescue workers were

4:08

responding to emergency calls from this area. The

4:11

road is dark. Several ambulances and

4:13

a fire truck light up the

4:15

night with flashing red and white

4:17

emergency signals. The scene otherwise is

4:19

eerily desolate. There's no street lights,

4:21

just these flashing lights. This is

4:24

being filmed by Rifat Rodwan, a

4:26

paramedic in one of the ambulances. Now

4:28

he's in the passenger seat filming this with

4:30

his phone, and he's nervous. They

4:33

spot an ambulance on the side

4:35

of the road, and they see bodies.

4:42

They step out, and immediately

4:44

this happens. They

4:48

come under attack. And

4:51

just so I understand, these guys are

4:53

coming out of clearly marked emergency vehicles

4:55

to check on another ambulance on the

4:57

side road where some paramedics have already

4:59

been killed. What happens now? So

5:02

Rodrón records nearly seven minutes of video

5:04

on him. And for more than five

5:06

minutes, we can hear him being shot

5:08

at, and we can hear him praying

5:10

to God for forgiveness. Over

5:14

and over again. And he's

5:16

also asking his mom to forgive

5:18

him. In

5:23

this moment, he tells his mom

5:25

he was only trying to save

5:27

lives if she could forgive him.

5:29

Now, the gunfire continues for several

5:31

minutes until we hear some

5:33

Hebrew being shouted. It's

5:39

unclear what's being said. but then

5:41

the video cuts. And

5:45

before that video was released though, Israel's

5:47

military, they put out their own

5:49

statement on this incident and it does

5:51

not resemble what was in the

5:54

video, right? Right. So

5:56

they say troops open fire toward

5:58

Hamas vehicles and killed several militants.

6:00

And they say Hamas repeatedly uses ambulances

6:02

for its own purposes. Then

6:04

they say more vehicles approach them suspiciously

6:06

soon after this without headlights or emergency

6:09

signals on. And that troops again killed

6:11

more Hamas militants. And the military then

6:13

says that after an initial inquiry, the

6:15

suspicious vehicles that were moving towards the

6:17

troops turned out to be ambulances and

6:19

fire trucks. Now, if their statement

6:21

sounds confusing, that's because it is.

6:23

It's unclear if they're saying. that everyone

6:25

in these cars was identified as

6:27

militants or if they're actually saying they

6:29

were militants. But they do acknowledge

6:32

that these were rescue vehicles and did

6:34

not have their lights on, that's what

6:36

they say. Now, unlike other attacks in

6:38

Gaza where there are two versions of

6:40

events, sometimes the Israeli side or the

6:42

Palestinian, in this one, there's proof. It

6:44

was that video on Earth on the body

6:46

of Radwan who was one of the 15

6:48

killed that night. It was on his phone

6:51

in his pocket. And Aya,

6:53

you and NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba,

6:55

actually spoke with a survivor from that

6:57

night. Can you just tell us a bit

6:59

about him and what he told you?

7:01

Sure. So there's only two survivors

7:03

from this evening. Munzer Abed and

7:05

another paramedic, Assad and Al -Sara, who's

7:07

still being held by the Israeli

7:10

military, detained. And they haven't

7:12

said why they're holding him. Now, Abed

7:14

was also detained by troops that night.

7:16

I mean, she's a kind of a big deal, you know. They're

7:18

gonna love it, they're gonna love it. He says

7:20

the Israeli troops cursed him. His religion

7:22

spat on him, beat him with their

7:24

rifles. He was blindfolded the entire time

7:26

before they let him go 15 hours

7:28

later. The 27 year old told us

7:30

he didn't think he was going to

7:32

survive the shooting or that evening. I'm

7:36

gonna tell you something, video,

7:38

of course, I'll show

7:40

you the data from the... Abbott says this

7:42

the first time the Israeli military has killed rescue

7:44

workers in Gaza, and he doesn't think it'll

7:46

be the last. He believes they

7:48

did try to cover up the attack,

7:50

fearing a scandal, but says, thank God, the

7:52

video revealed the truth. Now, Monser's

7:54

been a paramedic with the Red Crescent for 10

7:56

years, and he says this was the first time

7:58

he'd ever come under direct fire. He says

8:00

he can't. work anymore. He's too

8:02

traumatized. He told us he suffers from

8:04

nightmares, and he'd already lost a brother who

8:06

was an aid worker who was killed

8:08

last year in an Israeli airstrike. Wow.

8:11

And for days after this attack,

8:13

the Palestinian Red Crescent and civil defense

8:15

were demanding answers about their missing

8:17

crews. The UN was finally given

8:19

permission by Israel to enter this

8:21

area of Rafa and recover the bodies.

8:23

What did they find? So Jonathan

8:25

Whittle leads the UN's humanitarian response in

8:27

Gaza, and he led this recovery

8:29

mission. So from the UN

8:32

car on that mission to retrieve

8:34

these bodies, they come across and

8:36

film a woman they say shot

8:38

by Israeli troops in Rafa while

8:40

trying to heed military evacuation orders

8:42

in this area. And

8:45

then the video also

8:47

shows a young man shot trying

8:49

to retrieve her. And

8:51

what did they find when they reached

8:53

the site where the paramedics and rescue workers

8:55

were killed? They find

8:57

the 15 bodies in a mass grave. And

9:03

they

9:06

found the ambulances crushed into

9:08

the sand by bulldozers. And

9:10

tell us what the Israeli military's

9:13

investigation determined in all of

9:15

this. Well, it's important to

9:17

know that they premised the findings around the

9:19

mindset of the troops, and they say

9:21

that this was a hostile combat zone, but

9:23

the investigation also says that from the

9:25

start. It's the troops' responsibility to respect and

9:27

protect medical teams. So the military

9:29

says there were three shootings by Israeli

9:31

troops that night in this area. The first

9:33

hit a Palestinian ambulance, and it was

9:36

the bodies of those medics that the rescue

9:38

vehicles came upon when they too were

9:40

attacked. Then there was a

9:42

third vehicle, a UN car with a

9:44

Palestinian aid worker inside, who arrived

9:46

after the main shooting and was himself

9:48

killed. So the investigation says

9:50

the deputy commander on the ground was

9:52

operating under a quote, sense of threat.

9:54

and that he ordered troops to open

9:56

fire. The investigation determines these were the

9:59

result of a quote operational misunderstanding.

10:01

And they say that this deputy commander

10:03

did not recognize the emergency vehicles

10:05

due to what they say was poor

10:08

night visibility and the investigation faults

10:10

him for providing what they describe as

10:12

an inaccurate and incomplete report during

10:14

his debriefing about what originally had happened

10:16

that night. Now, this deputy

10:18

commander was dismissed from his position,

10:20

but he was described in the

10:22

military's findings as a highly respected officer

10:24

who'd been volunteering his service after

10:26

the October 7th attack by Hamas

10:29

that killed 1200 people in Israel in

10:31

2023. Now, the military also

10:33

reprimanded a top commanding officer, but stopped

10:35

short of of dismissing him. Okay,

10:37

but what did they have to say about the bodies

10:40

that were buried in this mass grave and the vehicles

10:42

that were crushed? The military determined that

10:44

removing the bodies was reasonable under the

10:46

circumstances. They say to prevent further harm

10:48

to them, but that the decision to

10:50

crush the vehicles was wrong. And they

10:52

insist there was no attempt by soldiers

10:54

to conceal the event. Al, what

10:56

has been the response to this attack as

10:58

well as the military's investigations? The

11:00

Palestinian Red Crescent says the

11:02

military's investigation conceals a wider truth

11:04

that the Israeli military repeatedly

11:07

commits violations. You know, before

11:09

this attack, 125 Palestinian emergency workers had

11:11

already been killed on the job over

11:13

the past 18 months of this war

11:15

in Gaza. And Whittle of

11:17

the UN, who led that recovery mission,

11:19

he's also urged greater accountability. He says

11:21

the conclusion that the ambulances couldn't be

11:23

recognized in the dark flies in the

11:25

face of the evidence. And earlier this

11:27

month, in a briefing from He said

11:29

this about the attack on the rescue

11:32

workers. I think it's very

11:34

emblematic of the point that

11:36

we've reached in Gaza. What

11:38

is happening here defies decency,

11:40

defies humanity, it defies the

11:42

law. It really is a

11:44

war without limits. A war without

11:46

limits. And that's what critics say soldiers on

11:48

the ground are hearing from their leaders. So

11:51

in a video circulating online aired

11:53

on Israel's Channel 14 News, the

11:55

commander of the Golan -i reconnaissance battalion,

11:57

whose forces were involved in the

11:59

shooting, tells them before last month's ground

12:01

offensive. All those who are fighting for it are a threat.

12:04

They are fighting for power. are trying

12:06

to protect themselves. They are to fight for power. They

12:09

to fight for power. Anyone we encounter

12:11

is an enemy. We identify a figure,

12:13

we eliminate it. And he says this

12:16

is how the free Israeli hostages still

12:18

held by Hamas and Gaza. Now

12:20

this commander's deputy was the one dismissed

12:22

after the investigation. But this

12:24

message of military pressure is being

12:26

echoed by Prime Minister Benjamin

12:28

Netanyahu. Just

12:33

this weekend, he said Israel will not

12:35

stop the war until hostages are

12:37

returned on Israeli terms of a ceasefire

12:39

and Hamas is destroyed. Now,

12:41

since this attack a month ago

12:43

on Israeli airstrikes and attacks have killed

12:45

another 1400 Palestinians. Gaza's health ministry

12:47

says a third of them are children.

12:50

And the Israeli military has taken over

12:52

the entire southern stretch of Gaza and

12:54

is taking over more territory in other

12:56

areas. And it continues pushing ahead with

12:58

its offensive. That was NPR's Aya

13:01

Batrawe and Dubai. Thank you so

13:03

much. Thanks, Juana. This

13:06

episode was produced by Connor Donovan,

13:08

with reporting by Ana Sbaba,

13:10

Hadil Elshalchi, Yanal Jabarin, Abu Bakr

13:12

Bashir, and Ahmed Abu Hamda.

13:14

It was edited by James Heider

13:16

and Courtney Dornig. Our

13:18

executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's

13:26

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