Israel admits to failures over deaths of 15 medics in Gaza

The Israeli military has admitted professional failures” and breaches of orders” after soldiers killed 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza last month.

- JABED AHMED

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 to be dismissed, the military said.

The International Red Cross/Red Crescent called it the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years. 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 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 after the footage emerged from a dead medic’s phone.