The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Sunday that an internal investigation into its killing of 15 humanitarian and medical workers in Gaza has found “several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident.”
The Israeli military has faced in the last weeks severe criticism by international leaders for killing 15 humanitarian workers and medics on 23 March, burying them in shallow graves, and misreporting details of the incident afterwards.
The workers’ bodies were found a week later by U.N. and Palestinian Red Crescent staff.
While the Israel military stated that it “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” it argued its soldiers were conducting a “vital mission” targeting Hamas terrorists and reiterated the claim that Hamas uses medical and humanitarian infrastructure “for terrorism, including using ambulances to transport terrorists and weapons.”
The report says that “in general” there was no attempt to conceal the event, despite recognizing soldiers buried the bodies and crushed the ambulances, asserting that doing the latter “was wrong.”
The military first claimed soldiers opened fire on vehicles without lights or markings approaching in the dark. But after a video recovered from the mobile phone of one of those killed emerged showing clearly marked ambulances with their lights on, the military changed its account.
In its final accounts of the event, the Israel military says the troops opened fire to “suspects” emerging from a fire truck and ambulances “after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat.”
With the vehicles approaching quickly, the deputy commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces and order to open fire.
“Due to poor night visibility, the deputy commander did not initially recognize the vehicles as ambulances,” the report said, “only later, after approaching the vehicles and scanning them, was it discovered that these were indeed rescue teams.”
Shortly after the incident, the troops also fired at a UN vehicle due to “operational errors,” the report added which happened because of “a breach of orders during a combat setting.”
The report argues six out of the fifteen victims have been identified as Hamas members.
As a result of the investigation, one deputy commander will be dismissed, and a commanding officer will receive a reprimand.
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