A Palestinian paramedic that was present in an incident in which 15 of his colleagues were killed in southern Gaza last month said he saw Israeli troops shooting emergency vehicles that he later saw bloodstained.
After several days of uncertainty about the whereabouts of the paramedics, the Red Crescent-Red Cross Arm in the Middle East-and UN authorities found the bodies of the 15 emergency workers and humanitarian aid buried in a common ditch in southern Gaza, accusing Israeli forces to kill them.
Another worker is still missing.
Munther Abed, a volunteer, said he was responding to a call from two colleagues near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip on March 23, when he was arrested by Israeli soldiers shortly before they opened fire against other emergency vehicles.
He said he couldn’t see exactly what happened when the soldiers opened fire.
But his report corresponds to statements by authorities of the Crescent Red Palestinian and the United Nations that Red Cross, Red Cross, UN, and Palestinian Civil Emergency Service were targets of Israeli troops.
The Israeli army opened an investigation into the incident, which, according to its report, occurred when unidentified vehicles approached an Israeli position in the dark, without special lights or special markings and without prior coordination, factors that, according to him, made the vehicles appear suspected.
The military said that the soldiers who opened fire killed several Hamas and Islamic jihad militants traveling on vehicles marked with signs of the Crescent Palestinian red.
The growing red Palestinian describes Abed as “the only survivor” of the incident, and the fate of the missing paramedic is not yet clear.
Abed said that he and his colleagues were called to help the injured around the dawn after an air strike in the Al-Hashasheen area in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
“We moved immediately, we were two other colleagues. As soon as we got there, we were shot and they stopped,” he told Reuters by his home in Khan Youis, referring to the shots fired by Israeli soldiers.
After being arrested, he said he lost sight of his two colleagues.
While near the soldiers, he said he saw other emergency vehicles approaching the position of Israeli soldiers.
“I was able to see the Civil Emergency vehicle. The soldiers started shooting the vehicles, they shot heavily,” he said.
“It was dark and I couldn’t see what happened to people there, but they [os soldados] They shot heavily. They asked me to lower me and they were shooting heavily. I felt as if the bullets are hitting me in person. ”
On Saturday, Crescent Red published a video obtained from the cell phone of a paramedic found buried in the ordinary grave.
Filmed from inside a moving vehicle, it seems to show an ambulance -marked train and a fire truck driving at dawn with its flashing red lights.
After they stopped in a vehicle that came out of the road, two rescuers and another man can be seen before one gunfire is heard.
Reuters was able to verify the location of the video near the area of such Sultan, west of the city of Rafah, in Rafah province.
The Israeli military said, in response to a request for commentary on the video, that the event of March 23, 2025 was under thorough investigation.
“All allegations, including the documentation circulating on the incident, will be completely and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and the treatment of the situation,” he said.
“Blood on vehicles”
It was only after dawn that Abed, who remained detained where he was initially detained, got a clearer idea of what had happened.
“With the first light of day, things got clearer, I saw the vehicles of civil emergency and crescent red, the doors of all vehicles were open and there was blood in the vehicles,” he said.
He said he saw a excavator dig four holes in the sandy soil before crushing the destroyed vehicles and bury them.
“At that time, I had no idea of my colleagues’ fate,” he said.
Abed said he was kept in detention by Israeli forces for about 15 hours during which he was interrogated and beaten. He said he saw the still missing humanitarian worker, detained by Israeli soldiers.
“They asked me where I had been on October 7, they were saying that the Palestinians are terrorists, and that we are all terrorists. They asked a lot of personal questions about me and my family,” he said. “I felt I was about to die.”
Finally, he said the soldiers did some checks before deciding to release him.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, confirmed that Abed was working for the organization as a volunteer and was in Rafah that day with the mission.
“He is the only survivor, the two colleagues who were with him were killed. There is another colleague who is still missing,” Farsakh told Reuters.
“He had no idea at that moment if his colleagues were martyred or were injured and saved.”
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Photograph of October 26, 2023. Satellite images show expansion of “City of Tents” where more than 1 million Palestinians displaced by war are concentrated in Rafah, southern Gaza. • Maxar
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Photography of December 10, 2023. Satellite images show expansion of “City of Tents” where more than 1 million Palestinians displaced by war are concentrated in Rafah, southern Gaza. • Maxar
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February 3, 2024 Photography. Satellite images show expansion of “City of Tents” where more than 1 million Palestinians displaced by war are concentrated in Rafah, southern Gaza. • Satellite images shows expansion of “City of Tents” where more than 1 million Palestinians displaced by war are concentrated in Rafah, southern Gaza.
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