Palestinian medical rescuer, who was present in an incident, in which 15 of his colleagues died in southern Gaza last month, said that he was a witness to the Israeli army shooting for rescue vehicles, which he later saw blood colored.
After a few days of uncertainty as to the place of residence of paramedics, Red Crescent officials and the United Nations found that the bodies of 15 emergency workers and help buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza, accusing Israeli forces of killing them. Another employee is still missing.
Munther Abed, a volunteer of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, said that he answered a phone with two colleagues near Rafah, in southern Gaza, on March 23, when he was detained by Israeli soldiers shortly before opening a fire in other rescue vehicles.
He said that he could not see exactly what happened when the soldiers opened fire. But his relationship corresponds to the claims of officials from Palestine Red Crescent Society and the UN that rescuers from the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, UN and Palestinian Civil Emergency Service were directed by the Israeli army.
The Israeli army opened an investigation into the incident, which according to his account took place when unmarked vehicles approached the Israeli position in the dark without lights or special markings and without prior coordination-faecarizers, which, as he said, the advancement of the vehicles seemed suspicious.
The army said that the soldiers who opened fire killed many Hamas fighters and Islamic jihads who traveled by vehicles marked with the signs of Palestine Red Crescent Society.
The red crescent describes Abed as a “lonely surviving” incident, with the fate of a lost medical paramedic still unclear.
Abed said that he and his colleagues received a phone to leave, to help wounded people around dawn after raids in the area of Al-Hashasheen in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
“We moved right away, it was me and two other colleagues. As soon as we arrived there, we stopped under fire and stopped us,” said Reuters on the phone from the house at Khan Youunis, referring to the shooting by Israeli soldiers.
After stopping Abed, he said he lost sight of his two colleagues.
When he stood near the soldiers, he said that he saw other rescue vehicles approaching the position of Israeli soldiers.
“I saw an emergency vehicle. The soldiers started shooting at vehicles, they firmly shot,” he said. “It was dark and I didn't see what happened to people there, but they (soldiers) firmly firmly. They asked me to avoid and shoot firmly. I felt like shells hit me personally.”
On Saturday, the red crescent crescent released a video obtained from the mobile phone of the sanitary found in a mass grave.
Shoed from the interior of a moving vehicle, it seems that it shows a clearly clear convoy of ambulances and a fire truck driving at dawn with flashing red lights. After stopping the vehicle, which turned from the road, two rescuers and another man can be seen before you can hear a volley of gunshots.
Reuters was able to verify the location of the film near the Tal Al-Sultan area, west of the city of Rafah in Rafah Guberate.
The Israeli army said in response to the request for a comment on the film that the event was thoroughly examined on March 23.
“All claims, including the documentation circulating about the incident, will be thoroughly and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and service of the situation,” he said.
“Blood on vehicles”
Only after the fracture of Abed, who remained in the place where he was initially detained, was able to get a more pronounced picture of what had happened.
“With the first light of the day, the matter becomes clearer, I saw emergency vehicles in civilian and red crescent accidents, the door of all vehicles was open and the vehicles were blood,” he said.
Abed said that he saw an bully digging four holes in sandy soil before crushing broken vehicles and buried them.
“At that time I had no idea about the fate of my colleagues,” he said.
Abed said he was held by Israeli forces for about 15 hours, during which he was questioned and beaten. He said that he saw a help employee who was still missing, detained by Israeli soldiers.
“They asked me where I was on October 7, they said that Palestinians were terrorists and that we were all terrorists. They also asked many personal questions about me and my family,” he said. “I felt that I would die soon.”
In the end he said that the soldiers checked him before they decided to release him.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesman for Palestine Red Crescent Society, confirmed that Abed worked for the organization as a volunteer and was with a mission in Rafah that day.
“He is a lonely survivor, two colleagues who were with him were killed. There is another friend who was still missing,” said Farsakh Reuters.
“At that moment he had no idea whether his colleagues were martyrs, whether they were injured and saved.”