New details from the Israeli military’s investigation into the killings of 15 aid workers in Gaza on 23 March directly contradict the IDF’s official narrative.
Among the findings reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz is the revelation that materials gathered by the IDF show soldiers fired at the aid workers from “point-blank” range during the attack.
The IDF has said there was “no shooting from close distance” during the attack, but Sky News previously revealed that some shots were fired from as close as 12 metres away from one of the medics.
The revelations by Haaretz – contained in IDF documents leaked to the publication – come just days after Sky News released its investigation into the killings, which found major gaps and inconsistencies in the IDF’s version of events.
On Sunday, two days after Sky News’ investigation was published, the IDF put out a summary of the findings from its official investigation into the 23 March killing of 15 aid workers.
The new statement backtracked on several key claims which Sky News had proven false, including that the vehicles lacked necessary travel permissions and that they were crushed accidentally while being removed from the road.
The report by Haaretz now calls into question central aspects of the IDF’s latest official version of events.
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The new revelations contradict the IDF’s account
Among the new findings by Haaretz is that the medical rescue convoy was judged to be Hamas based on an interview with one Palestinian medic that was conducted by a soldier who did not speak Arabic.
The IDF has said that it was on the basis of this interview, in which the survivor reportedly falsely confessed to being a Hamas member, that the soldiers were on high alert when a rescue convoy subsequently arrived at the scene.
The Israeli military told Sky News on 22 April that the interview was conducted by an “Arabic-speaking person from the team”.
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Haaretz also reports that the rescue convoy was driving “slowly” as it approached the scene, contradicting previous IDF claims that the convoy approached “rapidly”.
This backs up Sky News’ analysis of a video shot from one of the convoy’s ambulances, which shows it was moving at around 25 miles per hour in the moments before it arrived.
IDF investigators ‘not convinced’ by soldier’s testimony
The new documents allegedly show that the IDF investigators were “not convinced” by the deputy commander’s claims that he misidentified the rescue convoy as Hamas.
“A scenario in which Hamas operatives travel in marked rescue vehicles to a location where they know IDF troops are present is one that the army had not encountered during the fighting in Gaza,” Haaretz reports.
“As such, neither the investigation team nor the brigade command accepted the deputy battalion commander’s version.”
The IDF previously told Sky News that the commander said he was unable to see the lights on the fire truck because of his night-vision goggles, and said that investigators found this claim to be “arguable”.
The documents viewed by Haaretz also reportedly show that the IDF found the troops, when charging towards the convoy, moved in an undisciplined fashion.
This contradicts previous statements by the IDF that the troops moved in a standard military formation for addressing hostile threats.
Haaretz also reports that the soldiers “kept shooting even after it was clear that no return fire was coming from the other side – and despite the cries of the aid workers who tried to identify themselves”.
Burying the vehicles
Among the other revelations in the Haaretz report is that soldiers were ordered to crush the medics’ vehicles by their brigade commander.
The IDF had previously claimed that the vehicles were crushed by accident while being removed from the road, a claim that Sky News previously proved to be false.
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In its statement on Sunday, the IDF admitted that there was a “decision” to crush the vehicles, but did not explain the reasons behind this decision.
“Why did they have to squish them, we don’t know,” a spokesperson told Sky News.
Haaretz reports that the vehicles were crushed to prevent attention being drawn to the IDF’s presence in the area, in anticipation of a planned ambush.
When contacted for comment, the IDF did not address any of the information contained in the new Haaretz report or Sky News’ specific questions.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
