ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Palestinian officials say nearly 140 rescue workers have been killed on the job in Gaza during the war. The Israeli military has not investigated many of these killings, but one attack last month that killed 15 emergency workers sparked a rare high-level inquiry. NPR's Aya Batrawy takes a closer look. And a warning - this report includes the sound of gunfire and descriptions of war.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: On March 23, just days after Israel ended a ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian paramedics and emergency workers. Video found on one of the dead paramedics' bodies shows what happened that night.
Ambulances and a fire truck with flashing emergency lights on travel down a dark road in southern Gaza. It's not yet dawn. The video is shot by paramedic Rifaat Radwan, who's riding in one of the ambulances.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RIFAAT RADWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: He films the emergency crews approaching another ambulance on the side of the road. They see bodies.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RADWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: They get out of their cars wearing red reflective clothing. Then, for the next 5 1/2 minutes of this video, Israeli troops fire on them.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
BATRAWY: Radwan is heard praying to God...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RADWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: ...And he asks his mom for forgiveness, saying he was only trying to save lives.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RADWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Israeli forces are heard shouting something in Hebrew at the end of the video...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RADWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Hebrew).
BATRAWY: ...Before it cuts. It wasn't until this video was unearthed on a phone with Radwan's body, by other Palestinian rescue workers days later, that Israel reversed its original statement that the emergency vehicles had approached soldiers suspiciously, without headlights or signals on. The public airing of the video prompted a military investigation, which released its findings over the weekend. It says the shootings were mostly the result of a, quote, "operational misunderstanding" but also identified some professional failures and breaches of orders. That explanation isn't enough for those who knew the medics.
JONATHAN WHITTALL: These were medical workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the civil defense and still in their uniforms, still wearing gloves. They were killed while trying to save lives.
BATRAWY: Jonathan Whittall leads the U.N.'s humanitarian response in Gaza. He recorded the U.N.'s mission into southern Gaza to recover the medics' remains.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED UN WORKER: This is Romeo 1. I'm just going to check to see if there's any human remains in here, just - it's a whiteout (ph).
BATRAWY: The 15 bodies were found in a mass grave. Israeli soldiers buried them there and bulldozed the ambulances into the sand. The military says burying the bodies this way was reasonable under the circumstances and not an attempt by soldiers to conceal what happened. They say crushing the vehicles was wrong. The Palestinian Red Crescent says the military's investigation conceals the truth. The U.N.'s Whittall has urged greater accountability, and at a briefing earlier this month, he said this about the killing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WHITTALL: Because I think it's very emblematic of the point that we've reached in Gaza - what is happening here defies decency. It defies humanity. It defies the law. It really is a war without limits.
BATRAWY: A war without limits - that's the message critics say soldiers on the ground are hearing from their leaders. In a video circulating online and aired on Israel's Channel 14 news, the commander of the Golani reconnaissance unit, whose troops killed the paramedics, tells them before last month's ground offensive...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GOLANI COMMANDER: (Speaking Hebrew).
BATRAWY: ..."Anyone we encounter is an enemy. We identify a figure, we eliminate it." He says this is how to free Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, a message echoed by Israel's leadership. The commander's deputy was dismissed after the investigation. The military concluded he ordered troops to open fire due to a sense of threat and that he didn't recognize them as emergency vehicles due to poor night visibility.
MUNTHER ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: NPR reached Munzer Abed (ph), a 27-year-old paramedic who survived the attack. There's only one other surviving paramedic. He's detained by the military. Abed says he was blindfolded and interrogated for 15 hours before being let go.
ABED: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: He says, "thank God a video emerged proving Israeli claims were a lie." He says the truth came out clearly to the world, showing how his colleagues were killed. The military has since taken over most of southern Gaza and is expanding control over more territory. Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Dubai, with reporting by Anas Baba in Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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