Zionist regime’s military claims Gaza medics were killed mistakenly

The deadly shooting of the paramedics and rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Gaza’s Civil Defense and a UN staff member by Israeli forces during a rescue mission in southern Gaza on March 23 sparked international outrage and demands for a war crimes investigation.

The bodies of the victims and the ambulances on which they had traveled were later found buried in a sandy mass grave near Rafah. After digging up the bodies days later, the UN said they had been executed “one by one.”

On Sunday, the regime's military said an internal investigation into the incident has "found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting.”

"Such claims are blood libels and false accusations against IDF soldiers," the military said in a statement, using an acronym for Israel’s Military Forces.

The military's report, which labeled the deadly shooting an “operational misunderstanding,” said the investigation has “identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident."

As a result, it said, the deputy commander of the military's Golani Brigade “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander … and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief."

The military's report claimed that “poor night visibility” was to blame for the military commander's conclusion that the ambulances belonged to Hamas and began firing on them.

Video footage that emerged from the scene, however, showed that the ambulances were moving with flashing emergency lights.

Israel also claimed that its forces made “no attempt to conceal the event.”

“The examination concluded that removing the bodies was reasonable under the circumstances, but the decision to crush the vehicles was wrong.”

Medics and forensic experts, who had seen some of the bodies after they were recovered, said there was evidence the men had been shot execution style in the head, and their hands and feet had been tied.

After uncovering the bodies, a UN official said the workers had been killed “one by one." The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said at the time that the men were “targeted at close range”.

A Red Crescent spokesperson said the group would publish a statement in response to the military's report by Monday.