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The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Palestinian paramedic who survived Israeli attack that killed 15 says soldiers shot colleagues calling for help
A Palestinian medic has described the harrowing moment he says he heard Israeli troops shoot his colleagues as they clung on to life. Asaad al-Nasasra, 47 was one of the two first responders who survived an attack by Israeli soldiers on a convoy of emergency vehicles in March, in which 15 other workers were killed. In an account relayed by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Mr Nasasra claimed some of the paramedics who survived the initial assault were shot dead as they called for help. The bodies of 15 medics and rescue workers who had been killed were later found buried in a mass grave by Red Crescent and UN officials. Mr Nasasra was driving in an ambulance with Rifat Radwan, who filmed a seven minute video which was recovered on his phone after the attack. The video shows a fire engine and marked ambulances using their flashing emergency lights at night before the shooting began. This contradicted the Israeli military version, which denied the vehicles had their lights on. 'Al-Nasasra and Radwan were subjected to the heavy gunfire everyone heard in the recording and the very heavy gunfire which continued even after the recording ended as Israeli soldiers continued to shoot at them for a long time,' Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for PRCS, told The Guardian. 'Al-Nasasra took cover on the ground, at the back of the ambulance. He tried to hide and to protect himself as much as he could, digging himself into the ground. The body of Mohammed al-Heila, another aid worker killed, was above him.' He says he heard Israeli troops approaching the vehicles after heavy gunfire, and shoot everyone who was still alive once they had gotten close, PCRS said. The PCRS believes Mr Nasasra was initially not shot by Israeli troops because they thought he was dead already. After seeing he was alive, the medic pleaded for his life in Hebrew, explaining his mother was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. 'He told the soldiers: 'Don't shoot. I am Israeli.'' Ms Farsakh said. 'And the soldier got a bit confused. Al-Nasasra's mother was a Palestinian citizen of Israel.' After he was spared, he was forced to strip and thrown into a ditch, PCRS added. Mr Nasasra was held in Israeli detention for 37 days afterward, where he was beaten and tortured, the organisation claimed. He was released after intense international pressure after it emerged he was still alive, but has not yet spoken publicly. During his detention, he was subjected to physical attack, he was isolated in a room with very loud music known as the 'disco room', Ms Farsakh said. 'He described it as like something literally making you feel crazy and that the music was loud to the extent that you feel your nose is bleeding, your ears are bleeding.'' The PCRS adds that the paramedic is haunted by the 'sound of gunfire' and the 'sight of his wounded colleagues'. He is also said to be suffering from survivor's guilt after his fellow medics were killed. An IDF spokesperson said: 'The individual in question was detained based on intelligence indicating involvement in terrorist activity, and During his detention, he was questioned regarding this matter. Throughout his detention and questioning in Israel, he was held under a temporary custody order in accordance with the law. 'At the conclusion of the questioning, and based on the information gathered, it was decided not to issue a permanent detention order, and he was released back to the Gaza Strip in accordance with the law. The IDF operates in accordance with the law.' In April, an Israeli military investigation said the Palestinians were killed due to an 'operational misunderstanding' by Israeli forces, and that a separate incident 15 minutes later, when Israeli soldiers shot at a Palestinian U.N. vehicle, was a breach of orders. 'The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting," it added at the time.
The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Israeli military admits initial account of Palestinian medics' killing was ‘mistaken'
The Israeli military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after phone video appeared to contradict its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip. The military said initially it opened fire because the vehicles were 'advancing suspiciously' on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations late on Saturday, said that account was 'mistaken'. The almost seven-minute video, which the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Saturday was recovered from the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the men killed, appears to have been filmed from inside a moving vehicle. It shows a red fire engine and clearly marked ambulances driving at night, using headlights and flashing emergency lights. The vehicle stops beside another that has driven off the road. Two men get out to examine the stopped vehicle, then gunfire erupts before the screen goes black. Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one UN employee, were killed in the incident in Rafah on 23 March, in which the UN says Israeli forces shot the men 'one by one' and then buried them in a mass grave. The IDF said the incident was still under investigation and that 'all claims, including the documentation circulated about the incident, will be thoroughly and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and the handling of the situation'. The official said the initial report received from the field did not describe lights but that investigators were looking at 'operational information' and were trying to understand if this was due to an error by the person making the initial report. 'What we understand currently is the person who gives the initial account is mistaken. We're trying to understand why.' According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), the PRCS and civil defence workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues who had been shot at earlier in the day, when their clearly marked vehicles came under heavy Israeli fire in Rafah's Tel al-Sultan district. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, as the body of one of the dead had been found with his hands tied. The shootings happened one day into the renewed Israeli offensive in the area close to the Egyptian border after the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Another Red Crescent worker on the mission, Assad al-Nassasra, is still reported missing and the organisation has asked the Israeli military for information on his whereabouts. A survivor of the incident, the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, has said he saw al-Nassasra being led away blindfolded by Israeli troops. The 27-year-old volunteer who was detained for several hours before being released, was in the back of the first ambulance to arrive on the scene of an airstrike in the Hashashin district of Rafah before dawn on 23 March when it came under intense Israeli fire. His two Red Crescent colleagues sitting in the front were killed but he survived by throwing himself to the floor of the vehicle. 'The door opened, and there they were – Israeli special forces in military uniforms, armed with rifles, green lasers and night-vision goggles,' Abed told the Guardian. 'They dragged me out of the ambulance, keeping me face down to avoid seeing what had happened to my colleagues.' The UN and Palestinian Red Crescent have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics. Israeli media briefed by the military have reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups and killed a Hamas figure named Mohammed Amin Shobaki. None of the 15 killed medics has that name and no other bodies are known to have been found at the site. The official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information. 'According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over,' he told reporters. Abed – a volunteer for 10 years – was adamant there were no militants travelling with the ambulances. Jonathan Whittall, the interim head in Gaza of the UN humanitarian office OCHA, dismissed allegations that the medics who died were Hamas militants, saying staff had worked with the same medics previously in evacuating patients from hospitals and other tasks. 'These are paramedic crews that I personally have met before,' he said. 'They were buried in their uniforms with their gloves on. They were ready to save lives.' The official said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered, later burying them when the UN did not immediately collect the bodies. The UN confirmed last week that it had been informed of the location of the bodies but that access to the area was denied by Israel for several days. It said the bodies had been buried alongside their crushed vehicles – clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck and a UN car.
Al Jazeera
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel kills, lies, and the Western media believe it
Fifteen members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Civil Defence were killed. Not fighters. Not militants. Not people hiding rockets or weapons. They were aid workers. Humanitarians. Medics who ran towards the injured when bombs fell. People who gave their lives trying to save others. On March 23 in Rafah in southern Gaza, Israeli forces targeted a convoy of ambulances and emergency vehicles. Eight Red Crescent staff, six from the Palestinian Civil Defence and one United Nations staff member were slaughtered. The Israeli military claimed the vehicles were unmarked and suspected of carrying militants. But that was a lie. Footage retrieved from the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the murdered medics, shows flashing red lights, clearly marked vehicles and no weapons in sight. Then, heavy Israeli gunfire. Rifat's body was later found in a mass grave along with 13 others, some of which bore the signs of execution: bullets in the head or chest and hands bound. Even in death, they had to prove they were aid workers. And still, much of the Western media reported Israel's version first – 'Israel says …', 'the IDF states …', 'a military source tells …'. These carefully worded lines carry more weight than the blood-stained uniforms of the Red Crescent. More than the evidence. More than the truth. This is not new. This is not an isolated mistake. This is a system. A system in which Palestinians are presumed guilty. A system in which hospitals must prove they are hospitals, schools must prove they are schools and children must prove they are not human shields. A system in which our existence is treated as a threat – one that must be justified, explained, verified – before anyone will mourn us. This is what dehumanisation looks like. I was born and raised in Gaza. I know what a Red Crescent vest means. It means hope when there's nothing left. It means someone is coming to help – not to fight, not to kill but to save. It means that even in the middle of rubble and death, life still matters to someone. And I also know what it means to lose that. To see medics killed and then smeared. To hear the world debate their innocence while their colleagues dig through mass graves. To watch the people who tried to save lives reduced to statistics, framed as suspects, then forgotten. Dehumanisation is not just a rhetorical problem. It is not just media framing or political language. It kills. It erases. It allows the world to look away while entire communities are wiped out. It tells us: Your life does not matter the same way. Your grief is not real until we verify it. Your death is not tragic until we approve it. This is why the deaths of these 15 medics and rescuers matter so deeply. Because their story is not just about one atrocity. It is about the machinery of doubt that kicks in every time Palestinians are killed. It is about how we must become our own forensic investigators, our own legal team, our own public relations firm – while mourning the dead. This burden is not placed on anyone else. When Western journalists are killed, they are honoured. When Israeli civilians die, their names and faces fill screens around the world. When Palestinians die, their families have to prove they weren't terrorists first. We are always guilty until proven innocent – and often, not even then. Study after study has found that Western media quote Israeli sources far more than Palestinian ones and fail to challenge Israeli statements with the same rigour. Palestinian voices are not only marginalised but are also often framed as unreliable or emotional – as if grief discredits truth, as if pain makes us irrational. This media pattern fuels and reflects political decisions – from arms sales to diplomatic immunity, from silence at international forums to vetoes at the UN. It is all connected. When Palestinians are not seen as fully human, then their killers are not seen as fully responsible. And the emotional toll is immense. We do not just grieve; we defend our grief. We do not just bury our dead; we fight to have their deaths recognised. We live with a psychological pressure no community should bear – the pressure to prove we are not what the world has already decided we are. These 15 medics and first responders were heroes. They ran towards danger. They served their people. They believed in the sanctity of life, even in a place where life is constantly under siege. Their memory should be sacred. Instead, their story became another battleground. The world needs to stop making us prove we are human. Stop assuming that we lie and that our killers tell the truth. Stop accepting a narrative that requires Palestinians to be saints in order to be mourned. These medics deserved to be believed. They deserved to be protected. And they deserve justice. But most of all, they deserved – as we all do – to be seen as human. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
Express Tribune
06-04-2025
- Express Tribune
Video from killed Gaza medic shows Israeli forces' deadly attack on ambulance
Listen to article A newly discovered video shows the final moments of Palestinian medics killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on March 23. The footage, found on the mobile phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the victims, contradicts Israeli military claims that its soldiers targeted "suspicious vehicles" in the area. The video, released by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Saturday, shows medics wearing reflective uniforms inside a clearly marked ambulance in Rafah's Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood when they come under intense gunfire from Israeli forces. According to the PRCS, the convoy of ambulances had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped after an Israeli bombardment in Rafah. The video, filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red fire truck and several ambulances stopping by the roadside. Moments later, two uniformed medics exit the vehicles, and a volley of gunfire erupts, causing the screen to go black. The medic filming the scene is heard reciting the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, as he faces the gunfire. The Israeli military initially claimed that its forces did not target ambulances but rather fired at 'terrorists' approaching them in 'suspicious vehicles,' which were not displaying headlights or emergency signals. However, the PRCS and local witnesses argue that the video and the condition of the victims—many of whom were found with their hands and feet bound and showing signs of execution—point to a deliberate attack on humanitarian workers. The attack killed 15 people, including eight from the PRCS, six from Gaza's Civil Defence, and a staff member from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (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. One of the witnesses, Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, reported that many victims had bullet wounds to their heads and torsos, suggesting execution-style killings after being identified as medical personnel. Some of the bodies had been decapitated, while others were dismembered. The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the killings as "premeditated murder under international law," with a statement saying the video disproved Israel's claims that the vehicles had approached 'suspiciously.' Hamas demanded an international investigation into the attack. The Gaza government also condemned the killings, describing them as a "brutal and unprecedented" act against medical teams, calling for justice and accountability. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, expressed his horror over the attack, highlighting the risk of war crimes. He called for a "prompt and thorough investigation" into the incident, adding that it raised serious concerns over the targeting of humanitarian workers by Israeli forces. According to UNRWA, at least 408 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023. Israel has said it is investigating the attack, but it remains under heavy international scrutiny, with many calling for an independent probe into the killings of medical personnel. The ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza has led to the deaths of over 50,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Japan Times
06-04-2025
- Japan Times
Video shows last minutes before Gaza aid workers' deaths, Red Crescent says
A video recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts. The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel killed on March 23 in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. 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 Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off. But the footage released by the Red Crescent on Saturday appears to contradict the Israeli military's initial claims, showing ambulances traveling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing. The six minute 42 second video, 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 get out. 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. The Red Crescent said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the aid workers killed. "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," it said in a statement. Red Crescent spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told journalists that Israeli soldiers had "opened fire frantically and hysterically" at the medics. "We then clearly heard the soldiers speaking Hebrew," Farsakh said, adding that the fate of one medic, identified only as Assad, remained unknown. "We believe he has been arrested." An Israeli military official told journalists late on Saturday that there were two incidents in the early hours of March 23. The first occurred at 4:00 am when troops fired at a vehicle carrying members of Hamas internal security force, killing two and detaining one, he said on condition of anonymity. The second occurred two hours later. "At 6:00 am they received a report from the aerial coverage that there is a convoy moving in the dark in a suspicious way towards them," he said. The soldiers who were in the area felt that it was a similar incident to the earlier one, the official said. "They opened fire from far. What we see from surveillance, we see them shooting from a distance," he said. "There were no handcuffs, no firing from a close distance. ... The forces are not trying to hide anything. They thought they had an encounter with terrorists." Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff, six members of the Gaza civil defense agency and one employee of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. The bodies were found buried near Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah in what the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave. Hamas accused Israeli forces of a "deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and concealing the truth". OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on March 23. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of attacks. In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic profession of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death. "There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger," he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background. He is also heard saying: "Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people." Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying "The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming," referring to Israeli soldiers. Seconds later, a male voice is heard speaking in Hebrew without a foreign accent. "Wait, we're coming. We're not responsible — you are responsible," the voice says. The identity of the speaker and who he is addressing are unclear. 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 U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the attack raised concerns about possible "war crimes."
