The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) unit concerned within the killings of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue employees within the Gaza Strip final month was below the command of a brigade led by a infamous Israeli common beforehand accused by a few of his personal troops of getting “contempt for human life”.
The IDF has confirmed that troops from Golani, one of many military’s 5 infantry brigades, opened hearth on two convoys of ambulances in Rafah on 23 March and dug a mass grave to cowl the our bodies of these killed till the corpses might be retrieved by a UN workforce six days later. It has disputed allegations from two witnesses who exhumed the our bodies and newly launched postmortem outcomes that discovered a number of of these killed had close-range gunshot wounds to the top and chest and have been found with their palms or legs tied.
Subject operatives from Unit 504, a army intelligence unit with a repute for cruelty and reckless behaviour, together with torture, have been additionally current in the course of the assault, a senior army intelligence supply with data of current IDF deployments in southern Gaza advised the Guardian. The Israeli army declined to touch upon whether or not 504 was concerned.
In the course of the Rafah assault, the Golani troops have been below the command of the reservist Armoured 14th Brigade. The 14th Brigade is a part of a division led by Brig Gen Yehuda Vach, who former officers say designated an unofficial “kill zone” elsewhere within the strip which resulted within the arbitrary killings of Palestinian civilians. Troopers additionally alleged Vach’s “lack of operational self-discipline” endangered troopers’ lives.
Vach has additionally advised troops “there are not any innocents in Gaza”, in accordance with an investigation by the Israeli each day Haaretz.
In a video of Golani troops being briefed earlier than their redeployment to Gaza earlier this month, aired by Israel’s Channel 14, a battalion commander appeared to endorse an open-fire coverage, telling the troopers: “Anybody you encounter there’s an enemy. You establish anybody, you get rid of him.”
Golani troopers have beforehand been accused of warfare crimes within the battle, together with killing civilians, degrading therapy of our bodies, pointless destruction of civilian infrastructure, and incitement to genocide.
A track written by a member of the brigade’s 51st Battalion within the aftermath of the Hamas 7 October 2023 assault on Israel that ignited the warfare has turn into an unofficial anthem for a lot of troopers. The refrain’s lyrics embody: “For what you probably did to the nation of Israel, Golani is coming with gasoline … Gaza will burn.”
The accompanying music video options footage from Golani operations in Gaza through which the brigade’s yellow and inexperienced commonplace can clearly be seen.
Most of the allegations towards Golani troops have been compiled from social media picture and video footage posted on-line by the troopers themselves and cited in authorized filings by the Hind Rajab Basis, a non-profit that goals to carry Israeli army personnel accountable for warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity in Gaza. Israeli officers say the 2 founders of the Belgium-based organisation have a historical past of extremist views.
The presence of Unit 504 was additionally backed up by the account of the only real survivor of the bloodbath, the Purple Crescent volunteer Munther Abed, and official pictures and video of current IDF operations in Rafah.
The unit has carried out 1000’s of interrogations of captives from Gaza in the course of the warfare, and differs from different Israeli army intelligence outfits in that the troopers are fight troops, working at a battalion stage, who converse fluent Arabic.
In response to Abed, a 27-year-old ambulance service volunteer, troops he described as trying like “particular forces … armed with rifles, inexperienced lasers, and night-vision goggles” dragged him out of the emergency car after it was shot at constantly for 5 minutes, killing the motive force and paramedic he was travelling with.
The uniform description might match both Golani commandos or that of Unit 504 discipline operatives.
Abed mentioned he was then stripped to his underwear, along with his palms certain behind his again, and threatened, suffocated and crushed throughout a number of hours of interrogation.
Final week, the Israeli army backtracked on its account of the killings of the paramedics after footage emerged which contradicted its claims that the Purple Crescent autos weren’t marked as emergency autos and weren’t utilizing headlights or flashing lights when troops opened hearth.
The IDF has mentioned that between six and 9 of the medics had hyperlinks to Hamas, with out offering proof. None of these killed – eight Purple Crescent workers, six members of the Gaza civil defence company and one worker of the UN company for Palestinian refugees – have been armed. One Purple Crescent worker remains to be lacking.
The Israeli military chief, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has since ordered a second, extra in-depth investigation into the assault.
Over 18 months of warfare Israeli forces have killed a whole lot of medical employees and the workers of support companies and UN organisations in Gaza. In April final 12 months, seven members of the charity World Central Kitchen died in a sustained Israeli assault on their clearly marked autos.
Human rights organisations have lengthy accused the Israeli army of a tradition of impunity, with few troopers ever going through justice. In 2023, fewer than 1% of complaints made towards Israeli troops’ actions within the occupied Palestinian territories led to a conviction, in accordance with the newest US state division annual human rights report.
Earlier this week, the Palestinian Purple Crescent Society known as for a global investigation into the incident, which was the deadliest for members of the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross since six employees have been shot and killed in 2017 in an Islamic State ambush in Afghanistan.
Supply hyperlink
