Gaza: the killing of the paramedics

"After 18 months of slaughter, it is still possible to be shocked by events in Gaza," said The Guardian. More than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health authority. Israel's offensive has intensified again, and at least 100 children have been killed or maimed each day since strikes resumed last month. Even so, the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers last month is "particularly chilling".

In the early morning of 23 March, the Palestine Red Crescent sent ambulances just north of the city of Rafah to evacuate wounded civilians; there, the convoy came under fire from Israel Defence Forces (IDF). On 30 March, 15 bodies were retrieved from a mass grave; their ambulances and vehicles had also been crushed and buried in sand. Some of the bodies had their hands and legs tied. Preliminary evidence suggests they were shot from close range: executed. Killing civilians is of course a crime; in theory, medics have additional protections. But in Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel, international law is flouted every day. "In an age where impunity flourishes, crimes will multiply."

After the bodies were discovered, the IDF initially claimed that its soldiers had fired on a suspicious convoy that approached in the dark "without headlights or emergency signals", said Isabel Kershner in The New York Times. Military officials, though providing no evidence, also stated that nine (or later, six) of those killed were operatives of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. But a video recovered from the phone of one of the deceased men shows clearly that the ambulances and a fire truck had their lights on when they were ambushed by Israeli forces; and the UN insists that all the men were bona fide paramedics and rescue workers. The IDF has since "acknowledged flaws" in its initial account, and has promised to investigate.

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We should be wary of declaring Israel guilty before the facts are settled, said Jonathan Sacerdoti in The Spectator. Palestinian terror groups have in the past been accused of using ambulances as "instruments of war". And the convoy was passing through a war zone, where Hamas vehicles had recently been active. That's true, said The Jerusalem Post. And no doubt whatever happened took place in "the fog of war". But that the IDF has had to correct its initial version of events in the light of "damning" evidence provided by the media is "concerning". "Fighting in a war is not a blank cheque. There are still rules, there are still protocols." We must await the findings of the official inquiry; but all this is "not a good look for the IDF or Israel".