NEW YORK — An Israeli army deputy commander is being dismissed as a result of the Israel Defense Forces’ investigation into what happened last month when soldiers fired on medics in an ambulance in Gaza.
Gaza, March 31, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
Fifteen people were killed on March 23, after a two-month ceasefire ended on March 18.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the dead included eight of its medics, six members of Gaza’s civil defense agency and one employee of a UN agency.
“The IDF regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the army said in announcing the conclusion of its investigation.
“The examination process also serves as part of an ongoing effort to learn from operational incidents and reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.”
Almost immediately after the killings, the UN decried revelations of a “mass grave”; there were reports that some of the dead appeared to have been bound; a video contradicted Israel’s initial account that its soldiers had fired on an unmarked car advancing toward them.
In fact, the army probe concluded, there were three separate shooting incidents that took place in the same location that day; and some of the reporting was accurate, and some was not.
In the first shooting incident, Hamas operatives fired on an IDF position.
An hour later, the probe found, soldiers opened fire on personnel exiting a fire truck and ambulances in the area, which the deputy commander did not recognize as emergency vehicles and believed posed a threat. The failure of recognition of the nature of the vehicle may have been due to night goggles.
Later, the IDF fired on a UN Nations vehicle that arrived; the firing was due to what the probe said was “operational errors in breach of regulations.”
The army said the deputy commander — whom it praised as having returned from abroad after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and having reentered Gaza after previously being wounded there — would be fired in part because of errors in the field and because he provided “an incomplete and inaccurate report” after the incident.
The commander’s decision to crush the emergency vehicles after the killings — a move the army makes when vehicles are determined to have belonged to terrorists — was wrong, the army concluded.
But it rejected the idea that the bodies of those killed had been mishandled.
“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” said the IDF’s report, released on April 20.
“Such claims are blood libels and false accusations against IDF soldiers.”
After the killings, six of the dead were determined to be Hamas operatives, according to the IDF report. It did not identify them.
The Palestine Red Crescent has called for an independent investigation into the incident. The group rejected the IDF’s report, saying it shifting responsibility for systemic problems onto an individual.
The UN humanitarian chief in Gaza said he believed the investigation did not go far enough.
“A lack of real accountability undermines international law and makes the world a more dangerous place,” Jonathan Whittall said. “Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfolding, and the norms designed to protect us all, eroding.”
