The Israeli military has acknowledged multiple “professional errors” and breaches of protocol that led to the death of 15 Palestinian medics and first responders in Southern Gaza’s Rafah on March 23.
An internal investigation of the incident revealed a “failure to report the incident,” prompting disciplinary action against several officers, The Times of Israel reported. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the deputy commander of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, which opened fire on a convoy of ambulances and emergency vehicles, has been dismissed, The Times of Israel reported.
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The unit commander is also being removed for filing a “partial and inaccurate” report on the incident, the IDFÂ said. Additionally, the Israeli military is also formally censuring the commander of the 14th Reserve Armoured Brigade, the unit leading the operation in Rafah when the killing of the medics took place, for his “overall responsibility for the incident,” The Times of Israeli reported.
However, the IDF refused the allegations that the military indiscriminately fired on the medics and rescuers, adding that the soldiers incorrectly identified ambulances as Hamas vehicles.
“The military investigation said that the fact that several ambulances passed on the road during the night without incident, and several civilians were detained, shows that the troops did not indiscriminately open fire on the ambulances. Rather, it said, the soldiers were anticipating a threat, following the first vehicle that was incorrectly identified as a Hamas police car,” IDF said in a summary of the probe.
IDF also said that the soldiers stopped firing once they realised they were firing on the ambulances and added that no evidence of troops executing or handcuffing the medics was found, The Times of Israel reported. Of the 15 Palestinians killed, six were posthumously identified by the IDF as Hamas operatives.
