Killing paramedics is part of Israel’s war on the Palestinian healthcare system

It was a massacre. Fifteen emergency response workers, butchered in cold blood by personnel from the Israel Defence Forces in southern Gaza on 23 March. The massacre came to light in a video that the IDF did not intend anyone to see, filmed by Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic Rifaat Radwan in the final minutes of his life. Caught red-handed, the wires and levers of justification, mendacity and qualification ground into action.

The pattern of Israel’s institutional response is well-rehearsed. First came the official claim that the troops only opened fire because the convoy approached them “suspiciously”, in the dark, with no headlights or evidence of flashing lights. The movement of the convoy had not, it was claimed, been cleared and coordinated with the IDF, which had been alerted to its approach by remote operators of an overhead UAV. Soldiers had earlier fired on a car containing, according to the Israelis, three Hamas members. When that vehicle was approached by the ambulances, IDF personnel assumed that they were being threatened, despite there being no evidence that the emergency workers were armed. On exiting the vehicles, gunfire ensued. Radwan’s final words were: “The Israelis are coming; the Israeli soldiers are coming.”

Then came the qualification, the Israeli “caught with a hand in the cookie jar” retort.

With the video now very much in the public domain, the IDF was forced to admit that it had been mistaken in the initial assessment that the lights of the ambulance convoy had been switched off, blaming it on the sketchy testimony of soldiers. Also evident were clear markings on the vehicles, with the paramedics wearing hi-vis uniforms.

After being shot, the bodies of the 15 dead Palestinians were unceremoniously dumped in a shallow mass grave (“in a brutal and disregarding manner that violates human dignity,” according to the PRCS), supposedly to protect them from the ravages of wild animals; their vehicles were crushed by an armoured D9 bulldozer to clear the road. Allegations have been made that some of the bodies had their hands tied and were shot at close range, suggesting a very definite willingness on the part of the military to execute the men. The IDF has countered by claiming that the UN was informed of the location of the bodies.

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The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, however, is adamant: the paramedics were shot with the clear intention of slaying them. “We cannot disclose everything we know,” said Dr Younis Al-Khatib, president of the PRCS in the West Bank, “but I will say that all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill.”

The IDF claimed after a breezy inquiry that it “revealed that the force opened fire due to a sense of threat following a previous exchange of fire in the area. Also, six Hamas terrorists were identified among those killed in the incident.” This hardly dispels the reality that those shot were unarmed and showed no hostile intent. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Palestinian rescuers have offered a breakdown of those killed: eight staff members from the PRCS, six from the Palestinian Civil Defence, and one employee from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA.

The OCHA insists that the first team comprised rescuers, not Hamas operatives. On being searched for by additional paramedic and emergency personnel, they, too, were attacked by the IDF.

The findings of the probe into the killings were presented on 7 April to the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, by the chief of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor. Zamir then ordered that the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism be used to “deepen and complete” the effort. That particular fact-finding body is risibly described as independent, despite being an extension of the IDF.

Self-investigation by the IDF remains the norm for allegations of impropriety.

Since 7 October, 2023, the death toll of health workers in the Gaza Strip has been grim, with at least 1,060 doctors, nurses and medical support staff killed by Israel. Healthcare facilities have been destroyed by hundreds of attacks by Israeli forces. The World Health Organisation update in February found that a mere 50 per cent of hospitals were even partially functional. Primary health care facilities were found to be 41 per cent functional. Medical personnel have also been harassed, arbitrarily detained and subjected to mistreatment. A report from Healthcare Workers Watch published in February identified 384 cases of unlawful detention since 7 October, with 339 coming from the Gaza Strip and 45 from the West Bank.

In the considered opinion of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 1967, Francesca Albanese, “This is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy and fully annihilate the realisation of the right to health in Gaza.”

The IDF, which claims to be fastidious in observing the canons of international law, continues to dispel such notions by killing civilians and health workers. It also continues to insist that its soldiers could never be guilty of a conscious massacre, culpable in blatant crimes. The bodies of fifteen Palestinian paramedics and other emergency response workers definitely suggest otherwise.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.