Bbc“I am the only survivor who saw what happened to my colleagues,” says Mander Abed, and turned pictures of his fellow paramedics on his phone.
He survived the Israeli attack, which killed 15 workers in an emergency in Gaza, diving on the floor at the back of his ambulance, as his two colleagues at the front were shot dead in the early hours of March 23.
“We left the seat roughly at the dawn,” he told one of the reliable freelance journalists of the BBC working in Gaza, explaining how the Palestinian Red Crescent Response Team, the Gaza Civil Protection Agency, and the Rauna Rooms (Unrwa) gathered at the Ruba of Southern.
“Approximately 04:30, all civil defense vehicles were in place. At 04:40 the first two vehicles came out. At 04:50 the last vehicle arrived. Around 5:00, the agency's car (UN) was shot directly on the street,” he says.
The Israeli military says his powers have opened fire because the vehicles move suspiciously to soldiers without previous coordination and with their lights. He also claims that the nine Hama and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed in the incident.
Jonathan WhitalMander provokes this account.
“This is the same thing during the day and at night. Outdoor and interior lights are on. Everything tells you that it is an ambulance vehicle that belongs to the Palestinian red crescent. All lights were switched on while the vehicle was under a direct fire,” he says.
Then, he adds, he is pulled by the remains of Israeli soldiers, arrested and tied. He claims he was questioned for 15 hours before he was released.
The BBC has made its claims to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), but it is yet to be answered.
“IDF has not randomly attacked an ambulance,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar when he was questioned at a press conference, sounding IDF statements.
“Several uncoordinated vehicles have been identified to progress suspiciously to IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. Then IDF troops opened fire in suspected vehicles.”
He added: “After an initial rating, it was found that the forces had eliminated a military terrorist in Hamas Mohammed Amen Ibrahim Schubaki, who participated in the slaughter on October 7, along with eight other Hamas terrorists and Islamic jihad.”
The name of Schubaki is not on the list of the 15 dead emergency workers – eight of whom were Palestinian Medical Red Crescents, six were the first to respond to the civil protection, and one was an employee of Unrwa.
Israel did not take into account the location of the Schubaki body or offered evidence of the direct threat of emergency workers.
Mander rejects Israel's claim that Hamas may have used ambulances as a cover.
“It's extremely false. All crews are civilians,” he says.
“We do not belong to any belligerent group. Our main duty is to offer ambulance services and save people's lives. No more, no less.”
Gaza's paramedics brought their own colleagues to their funerals this week. There was a protest of grief, along with the calls for accountability. A injured father told the BBC that his son was killed “in cold blood.”
International agencies can only have access to the area to extract their bodies a week after the attack. They were found buried in the sand along with the destroyed ambulances, a fire truck and a vehicle at the UN.
Sam Rose, acting director of the GAZA office of UNRWA, says: “What we know is that fifteen people have lost their lives, that they have been buried in shallow graves in a sandy Berm in the middle of the road, treated with complete inviolability, and what seems to be a violation of international humanitarian law.
“But only if we have an investigation, a full and complete investigation will we be able to reach its bottom.”
Ghetto imagesIsrael is yet to commit to investigating. According to the UN, at least 1060 health workers have been killed since the start of the conflict.
“Certainly all the ambulance workers, all the medics, all the Gaza humanitarian workers are currently feeling increasingly non -insured, increasingly fragile,” says Gn Rose.
A paramedic has not yet been reported on the follow -up of the March 23 incident.
“They were not just colleagues, but friends,” says Mander, nervously controlled prayer beads through his fingers. “We used to eat, drank, laugh and joke together … I consider them my second family.”
“I will expose the crimes committed by the occupation (Israel) against my colleagues. If I were not the only survivor who could tell the world what they did to our colleagues and who would tell their story?”