It would appear that the Israeli army was determined to extinguish or expel every last Palestinian from Rafah when it launched its renewed military campaign in mid-March, so the last thing it wanted was to have civilian rescuers and paramedics coming in to try to save injured people. The plan - as illustrated in the map above - was, and is, to clear and occupy all of Rafah up to the 'Morag' corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, where there was an Israeli settlement up till 2005. Nothing would stand in their way, so when Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances were seen driving into the 'area of operations' they had to be stopped. The now notorious - thanks to the New York Times - attack was however something the IOF sought to conceal, first by bulldozing and burying the vehicles and their rescue workers, and then by refusing access to the UN for eight days. But when the story got out, and the bodies were unearthed and brought to Al Aqsa hospital, it quickly became clear that Israel committed another atrocity; testimony from a doctor verified that numbers of bodies had their hands tied, in addition to showing bullet wounds in the back of their heads. In all, fourteen men were killed by the Israeli soldiers, with some apparently held for hours and tortured before being shot. For some reason - and there may well be a reason - one of the captured men was released or escaped before being buried, and it is his testimony that confirmed Israel's lies about what happened. The BBC's correspondent Dan Johnson provided his story and context in the report below from the 6 O'clock news on April 2nd, including the detail from Munther Abed that he was interrogated for 15 hours. (the report starts with the days other news, of an Israeli strike on a clinic in Northern Gaza that killed a score of people sheltering there, and mostly children.)
At that point it was still possible for Israel's Gideon Saar to claim that the vehicles had lights switched off and acted suspiciously, without actual evidence to the contrary. But they didn't know that the team who came to dig up the bodies - 'buried to prevent animals getting at them' - would find a missing link - a phone in one of the victim's pockets. The 'graphic' evidence in his six minute long recording leaves no doubt as to what happened, and Israel's cheer squads and media are rushing around in damage control to create doubt - as they always do, while others call for an inquiry. While there are now many videos and reports circulating that show at least some of the recording, one of the best commentaries so far is from Nasser Mashni, chair of APAN, the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, which has led the struggle in Australia against Israeli disinformation and lies about Gaza and Palestine. Mashni was interviewed by Turkish broadcaster TRT on April 5th, in this two part video, posted below before the full interview appeared on Mashni's Instagram account:
The most complete account however was posted on Middle East Eye, with subtitles; a recording that conveys the terrible reality perhaps better than a video, as the poor man succumbs to the relentless Israeli gunfire.
Postscript, April 21st: 'Israel' issued the results of its 'investigation' into the killings, finding that 'mistakes' were made, and dismissing one commander, but still claiming the soldiers failed to identify the ambulance crews (it was dark) and was sorry for any civilian casualties. While this is absolutely to be expected from the Zionist entity as it continues to daily commit war crimes and pursues its genocidal ethnic cleansings, the protection offered to the terrorist state by State media like the BBC and ABC makes us all criminally culpable, particularly as we already have all the evidence necessary to convict Israel's leaders of this egregious crime. Gideon Saar himself claims responsibility for it by repeating the official lies. The evidence is described in this Guardian article, from Julian Borger with a local aide, recounting the testimony of Munther Abed and his 15 hour ordeal and torture, as he witnessed the whole massacre and burial of his colleagues before being 'released'. The story emerged on April 4th before the discovery of the phone and video, whose testimony then dominated the media.
DM 6th April 2025