Rifaat Radwan, a Palestinian paramedic, filmed himself before being killed by Israeli occupation forces alongside 14 other aid workers and UN staff. He documented his final moments in a 6-minute video before he and 14 colleagues were killed by Israeli army before dawn on March 23 by in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city. The footage, retrieved from his phone after his body was recovered from a mass grave in Gaza, captures the moments when rescue teams rushed to an area recently targeted, attempting to retrieve the bodies of the dead. Israeli forces unleashed intense gunfire on the medics moments after they arrived at the scene. The paramedics were killed beside the bodies they had been sent to retrieve, highlighting the lethal risks faced by humanitarian workers in the conflict.
The video clearly shows the aid vehicle as clearly marked and illuminated, contradicting Israel’s assertion that it targeted “suspicious vehicles” lacking proper signals. They had coordinated their movement with the Israeli army. No prior warning was given, and the attack was deliberate, amounting to a full-fledged war crime committed by Israel as part of its genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Even the burial of bodies was carried out by Israeli soldiers to conceal the deliberate targeting.
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.”The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative.
For five days, the UN and Red Crescent were denied access to search for the missing rescue workers. When granted entry, they found 15 rescuers buried in a mass grave. The incident highlights allegations of deliberate attacks on rescue workers, with evidence suggesting Israeli forces buried the bodies in an apparent effort to conceal the circumstances. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s vice president, Marwan Jilani, said the phone with the footage was found in the pocket of one of its slain staffers. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations distributed the video to the U.N. Security Council.
Rifaat Radwan is heard on the video reciting, over and over, the “shahada,” or a Muslim declaration of faith, which people recite when facing death. “There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is his messenger,” the paramedic is heard saying repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background. He asks Allah for forgiveness and says he knows he is going to die. Radwan’s recording includes his statement: “forgive me mother I did not take this path except to help people,” underscoring the crew’s humanitarian mission.
The deaths of the paramedics aid workers sparked widespread 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 discovered in a mass gray. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the attack raised concerns about possible “war crimes”, calling for an independent, prompt and thorough investigation into the apparently systematic killings.
Israel “must be held accountable for its crimes, the likes of which have no parallel in modern history,” a spokesperson for Gaza civil defence told Al Jazeera on Saturday. According to UNRWA, 408 aid workers including more than 280 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since the war began on 7 October 2023.
Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday said the “irrefutable visual evidence shatters the occupation’s fabricated ‘suspicious movement’ lies, proving systematic targeting of humanitarian personnel and constituting a premeditated murder under international law”.“We demand international justice for the victims of this heinous crime,” it said.
This directly challenges Israel’s denial of indiscriminate strikes on ambulances, raising urgent concerns about the targeting of humanitarian operations in Gaza. The video has intensified scrutiny of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza amid ongoing conflict, with international calls for accountability. Human rights organizations cite this case as part of a broader pattern of attacks on aid infrastructure, exacerbating Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. Investigations into the incident remain stalled, reflecting wider challenges in addressing alleged violations during the war.
Md Irshad Ayub is Founding English editor at millat times and Delhi-based freelance journalist.
