A commander was reprimanded, and a deputy was fired after an Israeli military assessment revealed professional failings and orders violations in the killing of 15 Gaza emergency personnel.
A study into the killing of 15 rescue responders in Gaza last month revealed professional mistakes and order violations, but no attempt to hide the occurrence, the Israeli military said on Sunday.
On March 23, the paramedics and emergency personnel were shot dead close to the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Their bodies were discovered a week later in a shallow grave by Palestinian Red Crescent and United Nations authorities.
The military stated a deputy commander would be fired and a senior officer disciplined.
The military said in a statement that “the examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident.”
“The investigation found that the troops’ operational misunderstanding—that they were under a real danger from hostile forces—caused the fire in the first two episodes. In the third instance, there was a violation of orders in a combat environment,” it continued.
According to the military, the deputy commander gave the order for troops to fire on people coming out of what turned out to be a fire engine and multiple ambulances.
According to the military, one hour prior, troops had opened fire on a different car they thought belonged to Hamas, which the deputy commander thought posed a threat.
The military claims that “due to poor night visibility,” the deputy commander was unable to identify the vehicles in the second incident as ambulances.
The Palestinian Red Crescent released a video taken from one of the deceased men’s cell phones that showed soldiers firing on uniformed emergency personnel, as well as clearly identified fire engines and ambulances with their lights on.
The military reported that soldiers fired at a Palestinian UN truck approximately 15 minutes after they began firing on the group of emergency responders. “Operational errors in breach of regulation” were reported by the military.
According to the military, a commanding officer who bears “overall responsibility for the incident” would face reprimands. Because he was the field commander and gave an “incomplete and inaccurate report” of the incident, a deputy commander would lose his job.
