Latest news with #Rifaat
Irish Examiner
26-04-2025
- Irish Examiner
Mick Clifford: Dispossessed Palestinians are now the oppressed
Rifaat Radwan knew he was about to die. He had been shot, mown down in a hail of bullets. As he lay there, he left a message on his phone for his mother. 'Forgive me, mama,' he said. These were among his last recorded words. He wanted forgiveness for the pain his death would cause her mother, who had worried about him every day since he has signed up to serve as a paramedic in their native Gaza. He was 24 years of age, on a rescue mission to save others, and he was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). There are some incidents in what is described as the fog of war that shine through, cold and hard, to illustrate the essence of what is afoot. The murder of 15 emergency workers on March 23 in Gaza shows the depth of depravity being deployed by the IDF. The incident was one of cold-blooded murder, committed with the specific intention of spreading terror, of cover-up and lies, and when the truth began to out, a tacit acknowledgement that Palestinians are not to be regarded as fellow human beings but instead some sub-species. We know the details of what occurred simply because Rifaat recorded the last 20 minutes of his life on his phone, in picture and sound. That day, an ambulance went to Tal as Sultan, an area in southern Gaza to rescue survivors of an Israeli bombing. Contact was lost with the vehicle and its occupants at around 4am. Another ambulance went out and radioed back that their missing colleagues appeared to have been shot. Two more ambulances and a fire truck were then dispatched, all clearly marked with their lights on identifying them as medical aid vehicles. They didn't come back. For eight days, Israel refused entry to the area where the 15 missing workers and their vehicles were believed to be. Eventually, access was granted. The bodies were buried in shallow graves, the vehicles destroyed. Some of the bodies had hands tied behind their backs. The IDF soldiers involved were part of a brigade whose commander was reported by the Haaretz newspaper as telling his troops that 'there are no innocents in Gaza,' and was filmed telling them: 'Anyone you encounter there is an enemy. You identify anyone, you eliminate him'. Initially, the Israelis claimed that they had come under fire from the vehicles and that they returned fire on suspected 'terrorists'. The phone recovered from the body of Rifaat Radwan showed this to be a central lie in a major cover-up. This week, after being forced into a so-called investigation, the IDF announced that there had been 'professional failures' that led to the murders, including an 'operational misunderstanding'. Palestinian children receive donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. Picture: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP The deputy head of the unit concerned has been dismissed. Neither murder charges nor war crimes were mentioned in this investigation. In effect, the outcome sounds like something that would emerge from a gun club where the rules weren't followed in killing foxes or rabbits. The term 'professional failures' to justify murdering unarmed innocents is an insult. 'Operational misunderstanding' is a million miles from opening fire on emergency vehicles, fully aware that those inside have no connection to any military body. In the round the Israeli response amounts to, 'ah sorry about that, bit of a mix up, these things happen'. If the incident hadn't been captured on phone, they would have maintained they were 'defending' themselves against so-called 'terrorists'. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the soldiers saw an opportunity to murder Palestinians and the fact that they were emergency workers provided an extra incentive to spread terror. Recently, on a visit to Vienna, I was in Sigmund Freud's former home, now a museum. A positive feeling permeates the premises, reflecting the huge advances the man known as the father of modern psychology made in treating the human condition. Sigmund Freud was taken to safety in 1938 as the Nazis began persecuting Jews in Vienna. There is also, however, a dark pall over the place. Freud was taken to safety in 1938 as the Nazis began persecuting the city's Jews. Of a population of 200,000 in the 1930s, only 5,000 were in Vienna at the end of the war. Freud, largely, due to contacts from his work, was lucky to get out. His sisters, some of whom lived in the family home, not so. In 1942, they were moved to a designated Jewish ghetto. One of them, Adolfine, died there. Her siblings, Marie, Pauline, and Rosa, were subsequently transported to the Treblinka concentration camp where they were murdered within hours of arrival. It was 1946 before their family found out what had happened to them. Today, memories of the Holocaust have complicated the reaction to Gaza in some European countries. There is guilt that informs a hesitation to outright condemn the government of a country founded by those who survived mass murder. Antisemitism still exists but in some places today, including the United States, it has been weaponised to excuse the slaughter in Gaza. Israelis bristle at any comparison between the conduct of their government and the Nazis, but there are indisputable parallels. European Jews from the 1930s have far more in common with today's Palestinians than they do those who run Israel. The term genocide was coined in the early 1940s to describe the Holocaust, but today its most frequent reference is to the systemic murder in Gaza. Jews were dehumanised by the Nazis, just as Palestinians are today by the IDF. Ghettos were established by the Nazis in European cities to corral the Jews, while Gaza was designed as a place to herd Palestinians, and in the last two years has been reduced to rubble. The Israeli government and its army, just like the Nazis, attempt to cover up what exactly they are at. Nobody is being marched into a gas chamber today, but indiscriminate bombing is pretty efficient as a means of killing. On Thursday, Isreal's recalled ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, posted on social media that it was her country's national Holocaust memorial day: 'It seems that even though 80 years have passed since the end of WWII, one of the more heartbreaking lessons we have learned is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.' Israel's ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich. She went on to decry antisemitism, which she claimed is rising across the world 'including in Ireland'. Her post showed an inexplicable lack of self-awareness of what is going on today and a deliberate conflation of antisemitism and horror at the slaughter of innocents by the Israeli military. She was correct in her observation that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Today, just as 80 years ago, the capacity for hatred to dehumanise and systemically murder people based on their ethnicity or religion is alive and well. All that has changed are the oppressors, no longer Nazis, and the oppressed, no longer European Jews, but dispossessed Palestinians. Read More UN agency says its food stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel's blockade
The National
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
Gaza medic's father condemns Israel's account of 'cruel, cold-blooded' killings
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza What Israel called a "misunderstanding" was something far worse for Anwar Radwan as he stood beside his son's grave, his hands trembling and his voice hoarse. Rifaat, a 25-year-old paramedic, was one of 15 Palestinians killed in a night-time shooting by Israeli troops in Gaza last month. After the bodies were bulldozed into a mass grave, it took days before the remains of Rifaat and the other victims were returned to their families. Having initially claimed the victims were "advancing suspiciously" with no emergency lights on their ambulances, Israel first had to backtrack when video footage proved otherwise, then fired a field commander after an investigation by the military. Another officer was reprimanded. 'Is that really the punishment for killing 15 human beings who were carrying out humanitarian duties protected under international law?' asked Mr Radwan, speaking to The National. 'Executed in cold blood, then buried in a horrific and inhumane manner?' Israel's military admitted to "several professional failures" over the killings but claimed, without providing evidence, that six of the 15 victims were members of Hamas. It said the deaths resulted from an "operational misunderstanding" and poor visibility at night in Gaza. 'My son Rifaat Radwan was not affiliated with any Palestinian faction,' the father said. 'All the accusations made by the Israeli army against him and his colleagues, who were cold-bloodedly killed, are false and cannot in any way cover up the horror and gravity of the crime.' Mr Radwan said those responsible should have been "held accountable appropriately" under international law, but believes that in reality "there is no one in the world ready or willing to restrain the occupation" by Israeli troops. 'I don't understand how the world can accept this so-called investigation,' he said. 'It treats the massacre of 15 humanitarian workers like it was a mistake or some trivial matter. "The investigation blames the victims and excuses the executioners for a crime so severe and cruel that humanity should never, ever forget it.' The killings of medics and first responders sparked international outrage, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying humanitarian workers "must be protected at all times". They were fired upon in three separate incidents, their bodies later crushed beneath the bulldozers in what Israel denied was an attempted cover-up. "Due to poor night visibility, the deputy commander did not initially recognise the vehicles as ambulances," the Israeli military said. "Only later, after approaching the vehicles and scanning them, was it discovered that these were indeed rescue teams." Paramedic Ibrahim Abu Al Kass, who had spent years working alongside some of those killed, said the victims had no ties to political factions and were always meticulous about safety. 'They were a true example of humanitarian service,' he told The National. 'They took every possible precaution. But the Israeli army does not distinguish between anyone, it targets all Palestinians, whether they are humanitarian workers or ordinary civilians.' Mr Abu Al Kass accused the army of trying to conceal the killings by destroying the vehicles and bodies, saying the crime was 'one of the most horrific acts committed in this war'. 'The investigations are weak,' he said. 'The army will continue to kill medics and humanitarian workers because no one is holding them accountable.' Grief has now become routine for Gaza's emergency responders. They continue their work, though now with an even heavier burden. Mr Abu Al Kass says every mission feels like walking into a trap. 'But we won't stop,' he said. 'We just wish someone in this world would see our lives as worth protecting.'
Sky News
18-04-2025
- Sky News
Analysis Analysis Two hours of terror: Sky News investigation reveals how Israel's deadly attack on aid workers unfolded New evidence unearthed by Sky News contradicts Israel's official account of the killing of 15 aid workers. By Ben van der Merwe and Michelle Inez Simon, Data & Forensics, Celine Al Khaldi and Sky's Gaza team Friday 18 April 2025 02:22, UK
Why you can trust Sky News A quadcopter buzzed overhead, blaring the voice of an Israeli official. It directed aid workers to a mound of sand on the eastern side of the road. This, the voice indicated, is where they would find their missing colleagues. It had been a week since Israeli soldiers killed them and buried their bodies in a mass grave. Access to the site had only been granted once before, three days earlier. That dig had turned up a single body - that of Anwar al Attar, buried beneath the crushed remains of his fire engine. This time, the bodies turned up in quick succession. One-by-one, they were lifted from the grave, placed into white bags and lined up neatly on the road. By sunset, 14 more bodies had been recovered. Among them were one UN worker, eight paramedics from Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and, including Attar, six first responders from Civil Defence - the official fire and rescue service of Gaza's Hamas-led government. None were armed. Israel has denied all wrongdoing, saying its troops had reason to suspect the vehicles contained Hamas operatives and that they were later proven right. Using visual evidence, satellite imagery, audio analysis and interviews with key witnesses, Sky News can present the most comprehensive picture of the incident so far. Our findings contradict not only Israel's initial account of the attack, but its subsequent accounts as well. 19:54 'I want to do it in order to help people' More than 400 aid workers have now been killed in Gaza since the war began. What set the killings of these 15 apart is that their last moments were recorded on video. Two videos, 19 minutes in total, were found on the phone of 24-year old paramedic Rifaat Radwan - one of the men pulled from the mass grave that day. They show the terror and chaos of Rifaat's last moments, and contradict key elements of Israel's narrative. "My son was very exhausted from this war," says Rifaat's mother, Hajjah. "This should not have been his reward." Hajjah remembers the moment her son told her he wanted to become a paramedic. It was the night of his graduation party, and all the guests had left. "I want to do it in order to help people," Rifaat had said. She called over Rifaat's father, Anwar, and Rifaat began by reminding him how, from the age of five or six, he had always chased after ambulances in the street. "This is who Rifaat was," says Anwar. "He had very beautiful ambitions." How Rifaat's last moments unfolded Shortly before 5am, Rifaat departed from PRCS's Rafah headquarters in an ambulance with fellow paramedic Assad al Nsasrah. The two men, along with another ambulance following behind, had been sent to search for three colleagues who had disappeared while on a rescue mission. By matching Rifaat's videos and their metadata to satellite imagery, Sky News has been able to map out the exact route he took. "They're lying there, just lying there," Assad says, as the ambulance comes to a stop. "Quick! It looks like an accident." Two other men rush out of the fire engine. Assad pulls the handbrake inside his ambulance. Three seconds later, a volley of shots ring out. Rifaat jumps out of the ambulance, diving for cover by the side of the road. For five-and-a-half minutes, Israeli troops continue to fire at the unarmed medics. As they do so, Rifaat recites the Muslim Shahada - a statement of faith often said before death. "Mum, forgive me. This is the path I chose, to help people," Rifaat says towards the end of the video. "Get up!" a voice shouts in Hebrew, before the recording abruptly ends. New audio obtained by Sky News Sky News has obtained exclusive new audio which reveals that the shooting did not end there. The audio, shared by PRCS, shows a 99-second phone call between the PRCS dispatch centre and Ashraf Abu Labda, one of the paramedics in Saleh Muammar's ambulance. PRCS told us the phone call was made at 5.13am, around five minutes after the attack began and shortly before Rifaat's call ended. Sky News was not able to match the audio from the two clips, which may have been recorded in different locations. For the first 33 seconds, Ashraf is heard reciting the Shahada as heavy gunfire continues. 1:34 Unintelligible shouting can be heard in the background, as well as the prayers of another aid worker. Suddenly, the shooting stops and Ashraf falls silent for several seconds. "There's soldiers, there's soldiers," he says as the gunfire resumes. "The army's at our location." These are his last recorded words. Sporadic gunfire continues for the remainder of the video. These are interspersed with periods of near-silence, punctuated only by unintelligible shouts. Suddenly, Hebrew is audible. "Come!" the voice shouts. "Come, come, come, come!" Where is Assad al Nsasrah? Nibal Farsakh, a spokesperson for PRCS, told Sky News Ashraf was not the only paramedic who was on the phone with the dispatch centre during the attack. The dispatcher was able to successfully call Saleh Muammar as late as 5.45am, 37 minutes after the attack began, according to Nibal. The dispatcher reportedly heard heavy gunfire in the background, and Saleh said he was injured. His body was recovered from the mass grave one week later. At 5.54am, Nibal says, the dispatch centre managed to get through to Assad al Nsasrah - the paramedic who was sitting next to Rifaat in his ambulance. "He was scared," Nibal says. "He was talking about his children - please look after my children, please get me out of here." Nibal says the dispatcher stayed on the line with Assad for an hour-and-a-half, calling back each time the signal cut out. At around 7am, she says, they heard Assad being arrested by the Israelis. At 7.25am, the dispatcher heard the soldiers telling Assad to empty his pockets. Fearing the soldiers would find out he had been recording them, Nibal says, the dispatcher hung up. It was not until 13 April, three weeks after the attack, that Israel confirmed Assad was alive and in Israeli detention. No explanation has been given for his detention, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says Israel has refused to allow it to check on his condition. Sky News has not been able to find any evidence that Assad has links to Hamas. We were able to find a photograph of him wearing a PRCS uniform dating back as far as 2009. The mystery of the UN official Only one victim remains without a name or a face - that of a UN employee who was found alongside the 14 aid workers in the mass grave, his vehicle crushed and buried nearby. A senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Sky News the man was a guard shift supervisor, and that it is believed he was attacked while travelling from his home to southern Khan Younis to begin his shift. "We have no reason to believe he was doing anything aside from his job," the official says. The UN lost contact with him at around 6am, the official says, and later received eyewitness reports that he had been detained, apparently uninjured, by Israeli forces in the area where the medics had been attacked earlier that morning. His body was recovered from the mass grave one week later, on 30 March. The man's body was buried without undergoing a post-mortem examination, though his family have since given permission for the body to be exhumed for this purpose, the official said. The man who carried out the autopsies on the bodies, Dr Ahmed Dahair, confirmed to Sky News he had so far examined every body except that of the UN official. Israel's seven key claims - and what the evidence says It was not until 31 March, after the last bodies had been pulled from the grave, that the Israeli military (IDF) commented on the attack. Numerous claims made in that statement, and in statements since, have not stood up to scrutiny. IDF claim: The vehicles had their lights off What we know: The vehicles' lights were on The IDF's initial statement claimed Israeli troops had opened fire on the convoy because it was "advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals". The video taken by Rifaat, which emerged on 4 April, disproved this claim, showing that all vehicles had their lights on. The IDF subsequently retracted the claim, blaming false testimony from the soldiers involved. The vehicles are also clearly marked in the video with humanitarian symbols, and all workers appear to be in uniform. The doctor who carried out the post-mortem examinations, Dr Ahmed Dahair, tells Sky News that "all of them were wearing their official uniforms". IDF claim: The vehicles lacked necessary permissions to travel in a combat zone What we know: The area was not declared a combat zone until four-and-a-half hours after the attack The IDF has also justified the decision to open fire by saying the vehicles were "uncoordinated" - meaning their movements were not approved in advance by the IDF. Speaking to Sky News, however, senior officials from the UN, PRCS and Civil Defence say coordination was not required because the area had not been declared a combat zone. "It was a safe area and does not require coordination," says Mohammed Abu Mosahba, director of ambulance and emergency services at PRCS. As Sky News reported on 3 April, an evacuation order for the area was only issued at 8.31am, almost four-and-a-half hours after the first ambulance was attacked. Israeli forces did conduct a major operation in the area that morning, but Sky News found no evidence that IDF vehicles were nearby before the attacks took place. Satellite imagery from 10.48am on the day of the incident shows a large number of vehicles near the site of the attack, and tracks connecting them with a building 1.1km to the west, indicating that this is where the vehicles came from. A photo posted by the IDF at 8.25am that morning shows a soldier and a tank at this building. However, analysis of the shadows on the building indicates the photo was taken between 6.30am and 7.00am - well after the attacks took place. IDF claim: Israeli troops did not fire from a close distance What we know: Some shots were fired from as close as 12m In a 5 April briefing to journalists, the IDF said there was "no firing from close distance" during the incident, and that this is backed up by aerial surveillance footage. The IDF is yet to release this footage. However, as Sky News revealed on 9 April, expert analysis of the audio in Rifaat's recording shows some of the shots fired at the medics came from as little as 12m away. Dr Ahmed, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examinations, said his team were unable to determine whether the shots were fired from close range because the bodies arrived in an "advanced state of decomposition". IDF claim: The victims did not have their hands or feet tied together What we know: There is no evidence to suggest the victims were restrained before being killed Representatives of PRCS and Civil Defence, as well as a doctor who saw the bodies, have said that at least one victim was found with their hands or legs tied together - claims that Israel has denied. Photos shared with Sky News and other media outlets as evidence of this claim do show a black plastic tie around one victim's wrist. Attached to the tie is an empty white information card. The tie appears only on one limb, however, and sources at Red Cross and Civil Defence told us that the white tag appears to be of the kind used by emergency workers in Gaza to identify bodies. Dr Ahmed Dahair told Sky News he saw "no clear signs of physical restraints" during the post-mortem examinations. "In one case, there were areas of discolouration around the wrists, which may suggest possible binding. Nevertheless, there was no definitive evidence of restraints in the remaining cases," he said. 0:27 IDF claim: The vehicles were crushed by accident as they were moved off the road What we know: The vehicles were only crushed after they had been moved off the road The IDF has said the bodies were buried in order to protect them from wild animals, and that the vehicles were crushed inadvertently while being moved out of the road. It has not explained why the vehicles were buried. Satellite imagery from the hours after the attack, however, shows that by 10.48am five vehicles had already been moved off to the side of the road but had not yet been crushed - directly contradicting the IDF's account. The illustration below is based on satellite imagery seen by Sky News. IDF claim: The convoy included 'Hamas terrorists' What we know: There is no evidence anyone in the convoy was a militant The IDF says "at least six" of those killed were "Hamas terrorists", though it hasn't alleged that any were armed. No evidence has been provided to support this claim, and there are no indications in Rifaat's video that any of the aid workers were combatants or had ties with Hamas. Conflict monitoring organisation Airwars told Sky News it had conducted a thorough search of the victims' social media history and was unable to find any evidence linking them to militant groups, though it emphasised that online information "can only ever provide a partial picture". The IDF has only specifically named one of these alleged Hamas operatives, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki. However, this person has not been named as a victim of the attack by the UN, PRCS or Civil Defence. There is no publicly available evidence that he had ties to any of these organisations, or to Hamas, or that he is dead. IDF claim: The original ambulance contained three Hamas police officers What we know: There is no evidence any of these three were militants The IDF says that all three people in the original ambulance, which Rifaat's team were searching for, were "Hamas police". No evidence has been provided for this claim either. Two of the men, Mustafa Khalaja and Ezz El-Din Shaat, were killed, while one, Munther Abed, was detained and later released. Sky News reviewed social media profiles, identified by Airwars, for the two men who were killed. We found no evidence that either was affiliated with Hamas. Ezz El-Din was photographed at a hospital wearing a PRCS uniform in October 2023, He was later pictured in February 2024 lifting an injured person out of a PRCS ambulance in Rafah. Mustafa, meanwhile, had extensively documented his paramedic career online in photos dating back to 2011. In one post, his young son is pictured at the wheel of a PRCS ambulance. "Mohammed insists on visiting me at work and sharing my working hours with patients," he wrote. Eyewitness account backs up Sky's findings Of all the aid workers present that day, only one has been able to tell their side of the story. Speaking to Sky News, Munther Abed, 27, said he had been in the first ambulance attacked that day - the one that Rifaat's convoy were looking for. 0:38 Munther denies having any connection to Hamas, telling Sky News that he was only released after the Israeli military confirmed he had no militant ties. His story began at 3.52am, when his ambulance was sent south to the site of a reported Israeli attack. Four minutes later, the dispatch centre lost contact with them. Munther was in the back of the ambulance when they were hit by what he describes as "heavy gunfire". He immediately dropped to the floor. "I did not hear a word from my two colleagues," he says. "I only heard their final breaths, their throes of death." Several soldiers dragged him from the vehicle, he says, and he was stripped, beaten and placed behind a wall. At 4.39am, Saleh Muammar's ambulance was sent out to search for the missing team. Onboard was Ashraf Abu Labda and another medic, Raed al Sharif. At 4.53am, they spotted Munthar's ambulance by the side of the road. Two more ambulances, including Rifaat's, were quickly sent to join the search. At 5.02am, Rifaat runs into Saleh, and asks if he knows where Munthar's ambulance is. Saleh tells him it's back the way he came. They call for backup from Civil Defence, and head towards the scene of the attack. At 5.08am, the search convoy arrived. Then the shooting began. "I was only able to see the red lights flickering of the vehicles, and was able to hear the sound of sirens [and] gunfire," Munther says. During his interrogation, the Israeli soldiers asked Munther why he was present during a military operation. He told them he wasn't aware of any such operation. It was only after sunrise, he says, when heavy machinery and tanks began to arrive, that fighting in the area began. "It happened all of a sudden," Munther says. "They didn't throw leaflets to inform the inhabitants to evacuate Rafah, nor did they say on the news. "No, Rafah was fully populated. It was not a red zone or a fighting zone as they claimed." His account is consistent with Sky's open-source analysis above, which found no evidence for any military operation at the time and location of the attack. Munther says he witnessed the crushing of the vehicles with his own eyes, corroborating Sky's finding that the vehicles were crushed only after being moved to the side of the road. After the heavy machinery arrived at dawn, Munther says, the Israelis dug a large hole on one side of the road and several smaller holes on the other side. "In the large hole, they put all the ambulances and the Civil Defence vehicles," he says. "The heavy machinery climbed over all the vehicles... then they buried them with some earth." Munther's story Munther told Sky News that he had also been badly mistreated in Israeli detention. "The torture took different colours," Munther says. "They released dogs to attack us when we were in holes, moving from one hole to another. They were hitting and tormenting me." During one interrogation, Munther says, a soldier placed his weapon on his neck. "Another soldier placed a bayonet on my wrist. If he had pressed a bit more he would have cut my veins." Munther says that Assad was detained alongside him on the day of the attack. "He was accompanied by an Israeli officer, and was beaten before being placed next to me," Munther says. Towards the end of his detention, Munther says, he was forced to act a "human shield" by transmitting messages between the troops and the crowds of people fleeing Rafah. After performing this task, he was given back his mobile phone and released. 'It all points to a cover-up' "This looks like a dreadful war crime," says Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, who served as lead prosecutor in the genocide trial of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague. "The [use] of a bulldozer to bury the bodies of the 15 people and their vehicles and the change of official accounts given by Israel all... points to a cover-up." 1:48 Satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces moved quickly to restrict access to the scene of the attack. Within five hours, the IDF had set up road blocks north and south of the site. Speaking to Sky News, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said: "The way it's been described in the first place, the original reaction by the Israeli army, the then subsequent corrections made, all points to something very, very disturbing." Sky's Alex Crawford asked Olmert whether the evidence pointed to a cover-up. "I don't know, but I don't feel comfortable," he said. 0:30 In an interview with Sky's Mark Austin on 8 April, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the IDF's investigation would be published "very, very shortly". "We have nothing to hide whatsoever," he said. In a statement to Sky News, the IDF said it is "conducting an inquiry into the incident, which took place in a combat zone, to uncover the truth". "The preliminary inquiry indicated that the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists. All the claims raised regarding the incident will be examined through the mechanism and presented in a detailed and thorough manner for a decision on how to handle the event." Who is responsible? The IDF has not released details of the soldiers involved, but it has said they belong to the elite Golani brigade. The video below, which emerged on 4 April, shows a Golani Patrol Commander speaking to his troops. "Everyone you encounter is an enemy," he tells them. "If you spot a figure, open fire, eliminate, and move on." Geoffrey Nice says that legal culpability for the killing of the 15 aid workers could rest with the soldiers involved, or with people higher up the command chain. "You don't do at the bottom what you fear will not be supported by people at the top," he says. "Why would you? The risk is too great." When she heard that there had been an Israeli operation overnight in Rafah, Rifaat's mother Hajjah wasn't worried - she had faith that her son's status as a humanitarian worker would protect him. Her main concern was whether, during all the inevitable call-outs, he would have time to eat or drink. "We did not fear for his safety at all." Additional reporting by Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer, Mary Poynter, producer, and Adam Parker, OSINT editor. The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done. Related Topics Data and Forensics Gaza Israel Israel-Hamas war
Al Jazeera
14-04-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
‘Forgive me, Mama': A Gaza mother's agony for a son Israel killed
Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza – Her son's final words haunt Ghalia Radwan. 'Forgive me, mama,' the 24-year-old said as he lay dying, shot by Israeli soldiers while he was on a rescue mission on March 23, which he recorded until his last breath. He wanted her forgiveness for the pain his death would cause, knowing that she had worried about him every day since he had become a paramedic. 'I forgive you, son,' Ghalia has whispered tearfully countless times since then, knowing that Rifaat had wanted his conscience clear before he died in southern Gaza with 14 other emergency workers. She hopes he knows she would always forgive him. On the morning of March 22, Ghalia woke up later than usual and rushed to see Rifaat before he left for work. But he had already left, and her heart filled with dread. 'I had kept looking over at him the night before as he was sleeping for some reason,' she says. The night of March 21 was unremarkable. Rifaat came home in time to break his Ramadan fast with his family in the displacement tent they live in. After the simple iftar meal, he talked with his parents a bit and then went to sleep. 'Even though I miss him terribly and always look forward to him getting home so we could chat, we always made sure not to tire him with talk or staying up late,' Rifaat's father, 52-year-old Anwar Radwan, says. Ghalia agrees: 'I just would wash his clothes and prepare his sleeping spot, so he could go to work rested.' She's not sure but believes Rifaat woke up around dawn for suhoor, the daily meal before fasting begins during Ramadan, and was picked up by 6am by his colleagues to go to work. He didn't come home after that shift, spending the night at the first responders centre instead. On March 23, the family was told Rifaat was one of 15 Palestine Red Crescent Society and Civil Defence rescue workers who were missing and feared ambushed by Israeli soldiers. That news launched the family into eight days of tormented waiting, praying and hoping that Rifaat would be found alive. 'I would pace back and forth, crying, praying and pleading with God, while constantly calling the Red Crescent,' Ghalia says of the wait while Palestinian authorities tried to get Israel to agree to a search operation. 'Each time they told us Israeli coordination had been denied, I would faint from the sheer pain.' On the morning of Eid al-Fitr, the family got a call from the Red Crescent that Israeli permission had finally been granted for search teams to enter the area. 'I wouldn't wish those agonising hours of waiting on any mother in the world,' Ghalia says. There is no internet coverage in the family's tent, so Anwar would have to go to an internet point in the camp to check for updates. He came back to the tent at one point and said the Red Crescent had found two bodies, then rushed out again, leaving Ghalia praying desperately that Rifaat was not among them The next time Anwar came back, he said four bodies had been recovered and rushed off again. On his third trip back, he said they had recovered six bodies, including Rifaat's. 'I felt like a dagger pierced my heart, but I resigned myself to God's will, and we went to the hospital.' At the hospital, the families of the other paramedics were waiting for their loved ones' bodies to arrive. 'We all rushed towards the ambulances, crying. Emergency workers were weeping bitterly as they bid farewell to their colleagues.' As excruciating as the wait for news was, it was nothing compared with watching the video Rifaat had recorded of his last moments, which was found after his body was. Over about 20 minutes, Rifaat can be heard speaking about the mission they were on. An ambulance that had gone to the Tal as-Sultan area of southern Gaza to rescue survivors of an Israeli bombing had disappeared about 4am on March 23. Another ambulance that went out to find it radioed back to base to say the missing colleagues seemed to have been shot, and two more ambulances were sent out to help them. Rifaat was in one. His video clearly shows the worry in the ambulance and the fact that all the emergency vehicles – including a Civil Defence firetruck – were clearly marked and had their lights on, not off as Israel initially claimed as it tried to justify killing 15 emergency workers and burying them and their vehicles. In the video, Ghalia was able to hear as her son spotted the bodies of his colleagues and see everyone in the ambulance rush out to help them as they were wearing clearly identifiable uniforms. Then came the sound of gunfire, and Rifaat fell to the ground as the visuals were obscured and only his voice remained as he repeated the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, and begged his mother to forgive him. 'Forgive me, mama,' he said. 'I wanted to help people. Forgive me.' Both declarations are tied to Rifaat's faith. The shahada is the most important declaration and prayer recited by Muslims. They also say it on their deathbeds to reaffirm their faith. Muslims believe that the path to heaven is through their parents and through having lived a good life and not harming anyone, and Rifaat wanted to die knowing that his mother would forgive him in death. 'Rifaat knew how deeply attached I was to him and how I constantly worried about him, so his last words were asking for my forgiveness because he knew losing him would break my heart,' Ghalia tells Al Jazeera, her eyes brimming with tears. 'My son was beautiful and charming. I adored him. He was handsome, generous and giving without limits,' Ghalia says. Anwar remembers a child who always ran after ambulances, firetrucks, bulldozers, anything with flashing emergency lights and a siren. '[Rifaat] loved emergency work, and when he finished high school, he chose that path.' Ghalia worried when Rifaat chose emergency medical services, joining the Palestine Red Crescent Society in October 2023 when Israel's war on Gaza began but relented when Rifaat showed how determined he was. 'He said the same thing to me then that he said in his final moments: 'Mama, I want to help people.'' Throughout Israel's war, Ghalia constantly feared for Rifaat's safety, warning him and begging him to stay safe. Whenever he came home after a difficult day, Rifaat would tell his mother what he had seen as he tried to rescue people. 'I would wash his blood-soaked uniform while he apologised and told me how he retrieved the remains of children, women and men from beneath the rubble,' she said. 'He was often devastated, but he never gave up.' Rifaat had dreamed of continuing his studies abroad, to learn more about emergency response and return to Gaza to bring his education home to give back to people, Ghalia says. '[He was also] our sole breadwinner due to his father's illness until he completely exhausted his bank account one day. 'I broke down crying, but he reassured me and said it was fine, that I shouldn't be sad about the money.' There's pride in Ghalia when she talks about her son, taking comfort in the fact that he sacrificed himself to serve and help others. 'My son Rifaat's message will live on, and I will raise my younger sons to follow in his footsteps and become paramedics,' Ghalia says, referring to her sons Abdul Jawwad, 13, and Suleiman, 11. 'Rifaat left us a noble message and an everlasting impact,' she adds. 'I always think of him whenever I see the flowers and plants he planted around our tent.'
BBC News
11-04-2025
- BBC News
'We collected his body instead of celebrating Eid' - mother of killed Gaza medic
"My heart and soul died when Rifaat was killed," says Hajjah Umm Mohammed, the mother of a Palestinian paramedic who was one of 15 emergency workers killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza last Radwan, 23, was travelling in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance in a convoy of emergency vehicles when it came under fire on the outskirts of Rafah on 23 March."I never expected him to be killed, especially since the area was classified as 'green', meaning safe and open to ambulances," she Israeli military initially claimed the troops opened fire because the convoy approached them "suspiciously" in darkness without headlights or flashing emergency video filmed by Rifaat and found on his phone after his body was recovered, showed the vehicles' lights were on as they answered a call to help wounded people."Forgive me, mother... this is the path I chose to help people," Rifaat can be heard saying in the video shortly before he was killed, amid the sound of heavy Mohammed believes he was asking for her forgiveness because he knew she would never see him again."I entrusted Rifaat to God every time he went out to work," she says. "He was brave, travelling across Gaza from north to south." Rifaat began volunteering with the PRCS after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza following Hamas's unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October Mohammed says her son enjoyed humanitarian work."He even transported the wounded to cross into Egypt for treatment through the Rafah crossing."Umm Mohammed explains that on the day he died, Rifaat had gone out with an ambulance after reports of several killed in an Israeli air strike."I didn't know he would be one of them [too]," she was a week before his body and those of his colleagues were found buried in a shallow grave on 30 March."Instead of celebrating Eid al-Fitr with Rifaat, we went with the Red Cross to collect his body from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis to bury him," she recalls."It was badly decomposed and they wouldn't allow me to see it."Umm Mohammed says he was an "absolutely beautiful" human being and the sole supporter of her and his father after all his siblings got married. Following the discovery of the video footage, an Israeli military official changed its initial account that claimed the vehicles approached without their lights on. The official said the person who gave the account was "mistaken".The official also said the troops perceived the emergency workers as a threat because of an earlier encounter in the area, and that at least six of those killed were Hamas operatives, without providing any troops buried the bodies, including Rifaat's, in sand to protect them from wild animals, the official were not uncovered until a week after the incident because international agencies, including the UN, could not organise safe passage to the area or locate the the UN-led team found the bodies they also discovered Rifaat's mobile phone containing footage of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has promised a "thorough examination" of the incident, saying it would "understand the sequence of events and the handling of the situation".The PRCS has alleged that the emergency workers were targeted in a "series of deliberate attacks" which constituted a "full-fledged war crime", and demanded an independent international investigation."We need justice for the victims. We need to ensure that all of those who are responsible are held to account. Without this, the crimes will continue to happen," PRCS spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh said on Wednesday."I have already lost 27 PRCS colleagues. All of them were killed while doing their humanitarian work. All of them were killed while wearing the Red Crescent emblem. This is not acceptable. It should never, ever have happened. We are not targets. And international humanitarian law is clear – humanitarians, medical personnel should be respected and protected." Munther Abed, a paramedic who survived the incident, says he and his colleagues were fired at without warning."I dropped to the floor in the back of the vehicle and didn't hear any sound from my colleagues except their death gasps," he told the BBC last week."Then, Israeli special forces arrested me, pinning my head to the ground so I couldn't see what happened to my team."Holding back tears, Munther added: "When I found out they were all martyred, it crushed me. They were my second family... my brothers, my friends, my loved ones."I wished I had died from the horror of what I saw."He says his phone was confiscated when he was detained."They interrogated me for 15 hours with beatings, insults, and both physical and verbal torture," he BBC has put his claims to the IDF, but it is yet to PRCS said the area the emergency workers were in had not been classified by the Israeli military as a "red zone", which meant no prior co-ordination was required to access the site, and that the video showed that Israeli military vehicles had not been visible in the said preliminary forensic reports showed that the paramedics were killed by "multiple gunshot wounds to the upper parts of the bodies", which it described as "further evidence of deliberate killing".It also dismissed the IDF's internal inquiry and rejected the IDF's accusation that Hamas operatives were among those killed. The IDF said in a statement on Monday that its Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, had been presented with the findings of the initial inquiry into the incident and instructed that it be "pursued in greater depth and completed in the coming days by the general staff investigation mechanism"."All the claims raised regarding the incident will be examined through the mechanism and presented in a detailed and thorough manner for a decision on how to handle the event," it 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October than 50,750 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.A ceasefire deal announced in January collapsed in March and there are currently 59 hostages still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be still alive.
