The Israeli military has admitted “professional failures” and “breaches of orders” after soldiers killed 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza last month.
An investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into the incident on 23 March found the deaths of the aid workers were a result of an “operational misunderstanding”.
A commanding officer is to be reprimanded and a deputy commander dismissed, the military said.
Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defense workers and a UN employee were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on emergency vehicles in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Footage obtained showed the convoy of vehicles, with lights flashing and logos visible, pulling up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier – before the vehicles came under a barrage of gunfire that lasted more than five minutes.
Israel first claimed the medics’ vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire but later backtracked, but video footage recovered from one of the dead medic’s phone contradicted Israel’s initial account.
The Israeli military’s investigation found the deputy battalion commander assessed that the ambulances belonged to Hamas militants “due to poor night visibility”.
The soldiers then bulldozed over the bodies along with their vehicles, burying them in a mass grave, but were later discovered by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society had claimed the killed medics were “targeted at close range.”
The Israel initially said nine of the 15 medics were Hamas militants. As part of its investigation, the military now says, without providing evidence, that six of them were “Hamas terrorists”. Hamas has rejected the accusation.
The investigation also found that the decision to crush the ambulances was wrong, but denied that there was an attempt to conceal the event.
Major General Yoav Har-Even, in charge of the military’s investigative branch, said the bodies and vehicles were removed from the road because the military wanted to use it for an evacuation route later that day.
“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” it added.
Israel said a deputy commander would be dismissed for providing an “incomplete and inaccurate report” of the incident.
