Israel, the murderous state. 06/04/2025 cartoon by CTXT
The murderous state of Israel has executed 15 people, including medics and rescue workers, continuing its macabre plan in one of the most brutal massacres since this new phase of genocide began .
This story is heartbreaking, as are the many other instances in which Israel has flaunted its utter disregard for life to the world, and it is one of the most brutal attacks on paramedics ever. This is a statement of intent. The killers have made it clear on several occasions that they will not abide by any norms of war, even though this attack is not a war.
Israel against hospitals. 12/11/2023 cartoon by CTXT
On 23 March, as the ambulance was heading to Rafah to treat a casualty injured by Israeli shelling, soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, wounding the medics. The Palestinian Red Crescent sent three more ambulances but lost contact with the medical team.
A week later, the bodies of 15 rescuers were found handcuffed, shot in the head and mutilated in an abandoned shallow mass grave, mixed in with the wreckage of an ambulance.
Eight of those found to have been executed in cold blood were Palestinian Red Crescent medics, six were civil defence rescuers and one was an employee of the United Nations agency UNRWA .
The first thing Israel did was what it always does: the first version of the massacre is that the army opened fire because the convoy approached "suspiciously" in the dark, without headlights or flashing lights, and that the movement of the ambulance was not coordinated or agreed upon in advance with the army. As usual, every Palestinian who moved was shot without distinction.
The killer joker. 04/11/2023 cartoon by CTXT
"Several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously towards IDF forces without headlights or emergency signals. IDF forces opened fire on the suspicious vehicles," Israeli Foreign Ministry Assassination Minister Gideon Saar said, adding, "Initial assessments confirm that we eliminated Hamas military terrorist Mohammed Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who participated in the 7 October massacre, along with eight other Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists."(Source)
But their names are not on the list of the 15 first responders who died.
But most importantly, the mobile phone found in the mass grave contained a video taken by one of the rescuers just before he was shot in the head, which once again exposed the perpetrators' lies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent submitted the footage to the United Nations as evidence against Israeli claims that its soldiers had attacked Hamas and Islamic Jihad 'terrorists'.
And showing the cynicism that characterises these sociopaths, after the video was released, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) admitted that they had made a"mistake" but continue to claim that at least six of the medics were affiliated with Hamas. As usual, they have made no effort to prove these claims, nor has anyone forced them to do so. Furthermore, they admit that the soldiers were not armed when they opened fire.
But in addition to the footage, there's also the testimony of Munter Abed, the only paramedic to survive the attack.
Related:
Mahmoud Mushtaha/CTXT 's "slow, quiet" death in a Gaza hospital
They bleed to death from minor shrapnel wounds. They die from diseases that doctors don't have time to treat. They go blind while waiting for the day they can be evacuated abroad. They are victims of the war on Israel's healthcare system.
