BBC Arabic
BBC“My Heart and Soul Die Rifaat Was Killed,” Says Hajjah Umm Mohammed, The Mother of Palestinian Paramedic Who Was One of 15 Emergency Workers Killed Israeli Troops in Southern Gaza Last Month.
RIFAAT RADWAN, WAS Traveling in A Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Ambulance in A Convoy Emergency Vehicles When Its Kame Under The Outkirts of Rafah on 23 March.
“I Never Expected Him to Be Killed, Especially The Area was classified as ‘Green’, Meaning Safe and Open to Ambulances,” She Adds.
The Israeli Military Initially Claimed The Troops Opened Fire Convoy Approached Them “Suspiciously” in Darkness WITHOUT Headlights or flashing Emergency Lights.
Howver, Video Filmed by Rifaat and Found on His Phone After His Body Was RecoveredShowed the Vehicles’ Lights Were On themselves Answered A Call To Help Wounded People.
“Forgive me, Mother is the Path I Chose to Help People,” Rifaat Can Be Heard Saying In The Video Shortly Before he was Killed, Amid The Sound of Heavy Gunfire.
Umm Mohammed Believes Hey asking him forgiveness Hehe Would he thought again.
“I entrusted Rifaat to God Every time he went out to work,” She says. “He was brave, Traveling Across from North to North to South.”
Rifaat Begu Volunteering With the PRCS After Israel Launched in Military Campaign Gaza Following Hamas’s unpretented Cross-Border Attack 7 October 2023.
Umm Mohammed Says Her son Enjoyed Humanitarian Work.
“Hey Even Transported to Cross Into Egypt Treatment Through The Rafah Crossing.”
Umm Mohammed Explains That On The Day He Diet, Rifaat Had Gone Out An Ambulance After Reports in Several An Israeli Air Strike.
“I didn’t know he would be one of Them (too),” She says.
It was a Week Before His Body and Those of His Colleagues Were Buried in a Shallow Grave 30 March.
“Instead of Celebrating Eid Al-Fitr with Rifaat, We Went The Red Cross to Collect His Body From Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to Bury Him,” She Recalls.
“It was Was Badly Decomposed and They Wouldn’t Allow Me To See It.”
Umm Mohammed Says He Was An “Absolutely Beautiful” Human Being and The Sole Supporter of Her And His Father After All His Siblings got married.
Following the Discovery of the Video Footage, An Israeli military official Changed ITS Initial Account That Claimed The Vehicles Approached On Their Lights. The Official Said The Person Who Gave The Account Was “Mistakn”.
The Official Also Said The Emergency Workers As A Threat Because An Earlier Encounter, and That Least Six Of Those Hamas Operatives, Without Providing Any Evidence.
The Troops Buried The Bodies, Including RifaT’s, Sand To Protect Them From Wild Animals, The Official Said.
They were uncovered Uncovered Until A Week After The Incident Because International Agencies, Including Un, Could Organise Safe Passage to The Area or Locate The Spot.
When The Un-Led Team Found The Bodies They Also Discovered RifaT’s Mobile Phone Containing Footage Of The Incident.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been promised in the incident of the “Thorough Examination”, saying It Would “Understand The Sequence of Events and The Handling of the Situation.”
The PRCS has been alleged that the emergency workers were targeted in a “Series of deliberate attacks” Wrim a “full-fledged war crime”, and demanded independent international investigation.
“We Need Justice.
“I Have Allready PRCS COLLEGUES. ALL WHILE WHILE WEIR WHILE WHILE WEARD ACCEPTABLE. It Should Never, Ever Have Happened. We Are Not Targets. And International Humanitarian Law is Clear – Humanitarans, Medical Personnel Should Be Respected and Protected. “
Munther Abed, A Paramedic Who Survived The Incident, Says He And His Colleagues Wäthout Warning.
“I Dropped to the Floor in The Back Of The Vehicle And Didn’t Hear Any Sound From My Colleagues Except Their Death Gasps,” He Told The BBC Last Week.
“Then, Israeli Special Forces Arrested Me, My Head To The Ground So I couldn’t See What Happened to My Team.”
Holding Back Tears, Munther Added: “When I Found Out All MartyRed, It crushed me. They was My Second Family … My Brothers, My Friends, My Loved Ones.
“I Wished I Had Diet From The Horror of What I Saw.”
Hey Says His Phone Was Confiscated When He Detained.
“They interrogated for 15 hours With Beatings, Insults, And Both Physical And Verbal Torture,” He Adds.
The BBC has put His Claims to the IDF, but it yet to respond.
The PRCS Said The Emergency Workers Were Classified by The Israeli Military As A “Red Zone”, What Meant No Prior Co-Ordination Was Access The Site, and That The Video Showed That Israeli Vehicles Had Not Been Visible in The Area.
It Said Preliminary Reports Showed That The Paramedics were Killed by “Multiple Gunshot Wounds to the Upper Parts of the Bodies”, which described as “Further Evidence of Deliberate Killing”.
It is also dismissed The IDF’s Internal inquiry and rejected the IDF’s Accusation That Hamas Operatives Were Among Those Killed.
AFPThe Idf Said on Statement’s Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, Had Been Presented With The Initial Intential Intructed That It Be “Pursued in Greater Depth and Complete in The Coming Days by The General Staff Investigation Mechanism”.
“All The Claims Regarding The Incident Will Be Examined Thought The Mechanism and Presented in A Detailed And Thorough Manner On How to Handle The Event,” It Added.
About 1,200 People Were Killed and 251 were Taken hostage on the Hamas Attack on Israel 7 October 2023.
More than 50,750 People Have been Killed in Gaza Since then, According to The Territory’s Hamas-Run Health Ministry.
A Ceasefire Deal in January Collapsed in March and There Are Currently 59 Hostages Still Held in Gaza, 24 of Whom Believed to Be Still Alive.
