Key points
- Israel trying to circumvent international law: Gaza civil defence
- Palestine Red Crescent Society has denounced report
- Israeli military killed 15 rescue workers last month in Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Gaza’s civil defence agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out “summary executions” in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.
AFP cited Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defence official as saying, “The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation’s narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions.”
Gaza civil defence said that Israel is trying to “circumvent” international law. The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah early on March 23, days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the strip.
Palestinian rescuers
According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers, among those killed were eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The incident drew global condemnation, including concern regarding possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.
An Israeli military investigation into the incident released on Sunday admitted to operational failures and sacked a field commander.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has denounced the report as “full of lies”. “It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.
Two killed in Israeli attack
Al Jazeera reported that an Israeli air attack hit an area in the so-called safe zone of al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. It reported that two people, a wife and a husband, were killed in the attack, which hit a tent housing displaced Palestinians behind the British Hospital.
The victims were identified as Ibrahim Asbitan Shaqliya and his wife, Bayan Muhammad Al-Dasouqi “Shaqliya”.
Gaza’s Health Ministry as saying that at least 51,201 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 116,869 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since it began 18 months ago.
The Gaza Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead, according to Al Jazeera.
