Australia demands independent investigation into killing of Gaza medics by Israeli forces

Australia called on Sunday for an independent investigation into the killing of 15 paramedics and civil defence workers in Gaza by Israeli forces last month, Anadolu has reported.

“The deaths of humanitarian workers in Gaza are unacceptable,” said an Australian Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “It is appropriate that there is a thorough and independent investigation. Those responsible must be held accountable.”

The demand came a day after a video released on Saturday by the New York Times exposed a deliberate lie by the Israeli army regarding the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics in southern Gaza on 23 March. The video was grabbed from the mobile phone of a paramedic whose body was later found buried in a mass grave.

It exposed the Israeli army’s initial claim that the vehicles were advancing “suspiciously” from its forces “without headlights, or emergency signals, (and) their movement was not coordinated in advance.” The army also claimed that nine members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed in the attack.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the world was seeking a “proper and thorough inquiry”.

The remains of the eight paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, six Gaza civil defence workers and one UN official were found buried in a shallow mass grave near Tel Al-Sultan outside Rafah on 30 March alongside the wreckage of their vehicles.

More than 50,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s genocidal military onslaught since October 2023.

READ: Israeli soldiers describe clearance of ‘kill zone’ around Gaza