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Israel's changing story of an attack on rescue workers
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31. Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services carry bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31.
Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
On March 23, the death toll in Gaza surpassed 50,000 people killed by Israeli fire in the war with Hamas.
This is the story of 15 people who were killed the same day.
There were airstrikes across the territory, and in the south Israeli troops opened fire on a crew of emergency workers in ambulances and a firetruck.
At first, the Israeli military said the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" toward troops, "without headlights or emergency signals." It said the soldiers had eliminated a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
A recording unearthed days later told a different story ultimately leading the Israel to conduct an investigation. The results blamed an "operational misunderstanding" and cite professional failures.
In more than 18 months of war – it's been rare for the Israeli Military to acknowledge failure.
Coming up the story of what happened.
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This episode was produced by Connor Donevan, with reporting by Anas Baba, Hadeel al-Shalchi, Yanal Jabarin, Abu Bakr Bashir and Ahmed Abuhamda. It was edited by James Hider and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
