The Israeli military has acknowledged that a deadly airstrike on medics in Gaza last month resulted from “professional failures” within its ranks, with a deputy commander facing dismissal for his role in the tragic outcome. The military had previously admitted to the attack in Rafah, which claimed 14 rescue worker lives and a U.N. driver's life, but had provided inconsistent rationalizations regarding the assault.
In a statement published over the weekend, a month post-incident, the military Declarations cited “several breaches of orders and a lack of accurate reporting” during the attack, which various international observers have decried as a potential war crime. The military’s assessment indicated that combat troops mistakenly perceived an imminent threat from the emergency vehicles and attributed the firing on a U.N. vehicle to a misunderstanding in the field, calling it a breach of operational orders.
Eyewitness accounts and footage revealed that the targeted vehicles belonged to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and included ambulances and a fire truck, along with the U.N. vehicle. The military explained that "poor night visibility" contributed to the mistake, as the deputy commander on the scene failed to recognize the medics' vehicles initially.
Recent revelations have indicated the military’s past assertions—claiming that the emergency units were advancing "suspiciously"—were inaccurate. This followed the emergence of video footage from one of the deceased paramedics' cellphones, showing that the ambulances had their lights activated before the attack commenced.
In the aftermath, reports of bodies being buried in a mass grave, alongside the destruction of emergency vehicles, emerged. The military stated that while the decision to remove the bodies was defensible under the circumstances, the directive to crush the vehicles was deemed incorrect. Moving forward, disciplinary actions will include reprimands for the brigade commander overseeing the operation and the dismissal of the battalion’s deputy commander for delivering misleading information during an initial evaluation following the tragic event.
Reporting from Gaza was contributed by Bilal Shbair, with support from Vivian Yee in Cairo, highlighting the complexities of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
