The Japan Times - Video shows last minutes before Gaza aid workers' deaths, Red Crescent says

The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel killed on March 23 in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Israeli military has said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, insisting they fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off.

But the footage released by the Red Crescent on Saturday appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.

The six minute 42 second video, apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red firetruck and ambulances driving through the night amid constant automatic gunfire.

The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit.

In the video, the voices of two medics are heard -- one saying "the vehicle, the vehicle", and another responding: "It seems to be an accident."

Seconds later a volley of gunfire breaks out and the screen goes black.

- 'Occupation's brutality' -

The Red Crescent said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the aid workers killed.

"This video unequivocally refutes the occupation's claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings," it said in a statement.

"The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative."

Later on Saturday, Red Crecent spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told journalists that Israeli soldiers had "opened fire frantically and hysterically" at the medics.

"We then clearly heard the soldiers speaking Hebrew," Farsakh said, adding that the fate of one medic, identified only as Assad, remained unknown.

"We believe he has been arrested."

Hamas, in a statement issued on Saturday, called the video a "damning piece of evidence of the occupation's brutality".

"It also demonstrates a deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and concealing the truth," Hamas said.

Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Their bodies were found buried near Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on March 23. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of attacks.

According to the Red Crecent, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.

- Fear and prayers -

In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic profession of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.

"There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger," he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background.

He is also heard saying: "Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people."

He then says: "Accept my martyrdom, God, and forgive me."

Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying "The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming", referring to Israeli soldiers.

Seconds later, a male voice is heard speaking in Hebrew without a foreign accent. "Wait, we're coming. We're not responsible — you are responsible," the voice says.

The identity of the speaker and who he is addressing are unclear.

The deaths of the aid workers sparked international condemnation.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were "in their uniforms, still wearing gloves" when they were found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, saying it raised concerns about possible "war crimes" by the Israeli military.

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered "in sand and cloth" to protect them until arrangements could be made with international organisations for their retrieval.

K.Yamaguchi--JT