Israeli military changes account of Gaza first-responder killings

The Israeli military has provided new details that changed its initial account of the killing of 15 emergency workers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month but said investigators were still examining the evidence.

The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave, where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another man is still missing.

The military initially said soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position "suspiciously" in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed nine militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in Palestinian Red Crescent vehicles.

But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.

The only known survivor of the incident, Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, also said he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.

An Israeli military official said late on Saturday the investigators were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to army commanders on Sunday.

He said the initial report received from the field did not describe lights but that investigators were looking at "operational information" and were trying to understand if this was due to an error by the person making the initial report.

"What we understand currently is the person who gives the initial account is mistaken. We're trying to understand why."

Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.

"According to our information, there were terrorists there, but this investigation is not over," he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.

The UN and Palestinian Red Crescent have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics.

Red Crescent and UN officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli airstrikes.

Apart from Abed, who was detained for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.

The UN said last week that available information indicated one team was killed by Israeli forces, and other emergency and aid crews were killed one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues.