Video recorded by martyred worker reveals how Israel executed 15 paramedics, civil defence staff in cold blood
Rifaat Radwan, a paramedic, recorded the ghastly Israeli crime and his own martyrdom in Rafah, south of Gaza.
Eighteen months into its uninhibited genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel committed one of its most brazen crimes. On March 23, as the Israeli military assaulted Rafah in southern Gaza, eight paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), six first responders from the civil defence, and one UNRWA employee answered the call of duty. For the next week, no one heard from them. Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, made frenetic appeals to the world every day to put pressure on the Israelis to reveal the whereabouts of the humanitarian workers who disappeared without a trace, but there was no update on their fate for a week.
On March 30, 15 bodies were dug up from a mass grave in Rafah. The humanitarian workers, all of them in reflective uniforms and inside clearly identifiable PRCS ambulances, were brutally slaughtered by the Israelis and buried in a mass grave along with their destroyed vehicles.
Basal revealed ghastly details of the execution and subsequent burial of his colleagues in mass graves. “They were found buried 200 metres from the site of the destroyed Civil Defence and Red Crescent vehicles, and they were wearing their standard orange uniforms typical of relief work,” PRCS spokesman Basal told a press conference in Gaza City on April 2.
“Some crew members were found buried with their hands and feet tied, and bullet wounds were visible on their heads and chests, showing that they were executed at close range,” he added.
He also revealed that one of the bodies was found beheaded.
As is their wont, the Israelis claimed that the slain humanitarian workers were fighters of the resistance factions Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The genocidal state claimed that “several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward [Israeli army] troops without headlights or emergency signals.”
However, as Basal clarified in the video attached above, the movement of the humanitarian workers was coordinated with international bodies so there was no question of suspicious movement of “uncoordinated vehicles.” It was a clear case of premeditated mass murder by the Israelis.
Now a video has emerged that completely destroys all of the Israeli claims. The video, recorded from the phone of martyred paramedic Rifaat Radwan, clearly shows that the PRCS vehicles and personnel were clearly marked by their attire and with flashing lights atop their vehicles.
Just as Radwan’s ambulance reached the site of the massacre he was responding to, the Israelis opened fire at his vehicle without warning. The paramedic then started reciting the shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith) as he prepared for his eventual martyrdom.
He asked for forgiveness from his Lord, prayed to Him to be accepted as a martyr, and asked for his mother’s forgiveness for choosing the path he did, “Forgive me, mother… This is the path I chose, mother… to help people. Forgive me, mother.”
In a longer version of the video (attached below), non-stop gunshots can be heard for well over six minutes as Radwan’s phone keeps recording. Although faint, the frenzied voices of his colleagues can also be heard in the background as the Israelis continue their brutal execution.
The Israelis have been committing such ghastly massacres of medical professionals, humanitarian workers, teachers, professors, UN staff, journalists, and children, among others, with complete impunity. It was never in doubt that the 15 missing personnel — barring a miracle — had been slaughtered by the Israelis and buried in mass graves. Now there is irrefutable evidence that that is exactly what happened to the 15 Palestinians on March 23 in Rafah.
In another such high profile execution of paramedics, the Israelis killed Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun after promising them safe passage to retrieve the then-alive Hind Rajab and the bodies of her slain relatives from their car in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in southern Gaza in January 2024. The Israelis reneged on their promise, destroyed their ambulance and killed the two paramedics. Their bodies, along with those of Hind and her relatives were retrieved only a week later once the Israelis withdrew from the neighbourhood. Until the time the genocidal troops were stationed in the locality, they kept shooting at anyone who attempted to retrieve the bodies.
In a statement denouncing the latest documentation of yet another ghastly Israeli crime, Hamas said that it is “irrefutable evidence of the occupation’s savagery”:
“This shocking video is not merely a tragic scene — it is irrefutable evidence of the occupation’s savagery and blatant violation of international laws and conventions,” Hamas said. “It also exposes a deliberate attempt to conceal the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and suppressing the truth, reflecting the fascist and criminal nature of this entity and adding another chapter to its record of crimes against humanity.”
The leading Palestinian faction added: “This crime is part of a long series of assaults by the fascist occupation against medical and civil defence teams, as well as humanitarian efforts, and its ongoing violations against unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip. This raises legitimate questions about the disgraceful international stance and silence, which provide cover for the continuation of these crimes.”
Meanwhile, the occupation’s stenographers in mainstream media continue to peddle Israeli lies and sanitise the genocidal state’s criminal behaviour. Here’s how the genocide apologists at the BBC reported the latest revelation, “Israel’s army has admitted its soldiers made mistakes over the killing of 15 emergency workers in southern Gaza on 23 March – but says some of them were linked to Hamas.” Execution of emergency workers in broad daylight is merely described as “mistakes” by the UK taxpayer-funded Zionist propaganda rag, while it simultaneously justifies their murder by linking them to Hamas without furnishing a shred of evidence.
Since the start of their genocidal assault on Gaza, the Israelis have killed well over 1,150 medical personnel, more than 200 civil defence workers, and upwards of 700 aid workers. There is nothing to suggest that the Israelis will be stopping their killing spree anytime soon as “the disgraceful international stance and silence” continue to provide them with all the cover and impunity they need to complete their genocide of the Palestinians, unbothered by international laws and norms of warfare.
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'No human, stone, or tree was spared' by the 'Mongols of this era': Gaza government reveals the full extent of Israeli genocide
The Government Media Office in Gaza held a press conference on, Sunday, February 2, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and gave an assessment of the damage inflicted on the besieged enclave during the 471 days of genocidal Israeli assault, which was funded, aided, abetted and diplomatically shielded by the West with the United States at the forefront.
Absolutely sickening… These zionist Israelis are worse than the nazis. But what is more shocking is the indifference of the rulers of those hypocritical liberal democracies who profess to defend human rights, and do and say NOTHING. Have we lost our sense of outrage, of justice and grief? In reporting this, the BBC’s ‘distant tone’ and its failure to engage with what is plainly an atrocity is beyond belief. Why? The fundamental ethics of journalism require they must ’speak truth to power’. Thank you PWBF for doing exactly that.
I don’t think I can remember any army who could have gotten away with something as evil as this. It will be denied, (Lies!! Fake!!), defended, (Fog of war!!), and soon, like the World Food workers, forgotten. Maybe.
Imagine photographing your own martyrdom. We must not let this be forgotten. The grotesque and tragic record of these killings must be added to that of Hind Rajab, and thousands of others until the criminals themselves become haunted by them. Today, even the New York Times covered this story. They can’t ignore it forever.