The IDF on Sunday announced that it is firing a deputy commander of Sayeret Golani, a major, and censuring Brigade 14 Commander Col. “T” for their conduct in a March 23 incident in which the military killed 14 International Red Crescent medics and seriously wounded another.
In addition, the IDF spokesperson acknowledged that some of the initial reports that the army put out about the incident, in terms of whether the medic vehicles had their headlights on or not and other issues, were incorrect since some of the information initially provided by the soldiers in the field had been false.
Once the IDF Fact Finding Mechanism Unit led by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yoav Har-Even probed the issue, it found that some of the initial information provided had been erroneous. Har-Even strove to correct it in an April 5 interim report.
The final operational probe by Har-Even separated the episode involving Division 143, led by controversial commander Brig.-Gen. Barak Hiram, into four incidents: 1) an incident where one ambulance was wrongly identified as a threat and fired upon; 2) a second incident in which multiple ambulances were wrongly identified as a threat and fired upon; 3) an incident in which the IDF forces knew that a vehicle was a United Nations vehicle and knowingly fired upon it anyway – allegedly to try to encourage it to leave a dangerous area, which was against the rules of engagement; and 4) errors made in the handling of the bodies and the ambulances.
Globally, the incident has been viewed as one of the worst of the war because of the number of Red Crescent medics killed, the apparent inconsistencies in the IDF’s initial narrative, and the mishandling of the bodies after the killing.
The third incident, involving the UN vehicle, was viewed by Har-Even and his probe as the most serious since the IDF troops blatantly violated the rules of engagement, even if their intent had been to cause the UN car to flee the area and not to strike and harm those inside the vehicle.
Brigade commander being censured
The brigade commander is being censured for overall collective responsibility for not properly installing within forces under his command the proper values and skills to handle the situation – even though he was not in the field during the incident. He is also being censured for incorrect handling of the bodies and ambulances after the incident.
ADDITIONALLY, ACCORDING to the IDF, criminal charges could still be levied against some of those involved, an issue to be decided by IDF Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, but Har-Even was opposed to criminal charges in light of the broader context.
Moreover, the probe noted that in the broader context, Hamas frequently uses ambulances and hospitals to shield its forces, such that the IDF cannot entirely refrain from firing on such vehicles if it suspects that there are terrorists involved.
The probe did not suggest that the soldiers had a reasonable answer for firing on the UN vehicle, even if their intent was not to kill, as the rules of engagement do not allow firing on a UN vehicle to get it to leave an area.
Also, the probe did not delve into the question of why the soldiers were not more careful after the first incident in which they wrongly identified a medical vehicle, or after the second incident involving many medical vehicles.
Rather, the probe noted the many passersby whom the IDF soldiers waiting in ambush did not fire upon, indicating that they were not simply shooting at anything that came through.
The IDF did not use the six Hamas terrorists who were wearing dual hats, as medics and terrorists, as an excuse for the mistakes made in the episode, given that the IDF forces involved did not know whether they were Hamas – and when the soldiers got up close to them, they found that they were unarmed.
IN OTHER words, the soldiers misidentified the ambulances, and the after-the-fact information that six of the 15 medics shot were Hamas members does not actually help to justify the intent of the soldiers at the moment when they opened fire.
What happened when the IDF spotted the medics?
According to the IDF, the deputy Golani commander opened fire first on the multiple medical vehicles but had a blocked vantage point and could not fully see the vehicles properly. Once he opened fire, the other 23 soldiers also opened fire and continued firing, as if it was a full fledged ambush, for around four minutes.
After they arrived up close to the medics they had shot, they took a few minutes to identify them and discuss the issue.
Next, the soldiers walked back to the other side of the street and discussed the issue for four more minutes, before taking decisions about the handling of the medics bodies.
The bodies were placed in a net and buried in the sand to keep them safe from animals.
COGAT notified the UN about the incident that day, indicating that due to ongoing battles in the area, the bodies could not be retrieved for another 48 hours.
On March 27, the IDF invited the UN to collect the bodies. However, when they arrived, they only found one body.
According to the IDF, the UN may not have dug deep enough to find the rest of the bodies. The IDF did not report what depth measurements were conveyed to the UN in terms of the bodies’ burial.
On March 28, another senior IDF official arrived at the scene and had the bodies brought closer to the surface, to be more easily located.
On March 30, the UN successfully collected the rest of the bodies.
The IDF did not explain why the soldiers did not simply bring the bodies back to Israel, though the tone of the probe suggested that the ambush and operations against Hamas had taken priority.
On March 23, at 4:30 a.m., the Golani Brigade set an ambush for Hamas forces near Tel Sultan in Rafah.
The ambush was successful and the IDF troops killed some Hamas forces.
Between then and 6 a.m., additional vehicles passed through the ambush area, including ambulances, without incident.
Around 6 a.m., the IDF troops mistook a group of ambulances for Hamas forces, and ambushed them from a distance behind set positions.
Part of the misidentification came from a drone reporting to the forces on the incoming vehicles, part was because the ambulances had stopped and the passengers came running out of the cars, and part was due to poor visibility experienced by the deputy Golani commander.
It turned out that the medics rushed out of the ambulance to try and save the earlier ambulance medic who had been killed.
The IDF did not explain why its forces did not consider that additional ambulances might be coming to rescue the earlier one.
Also, despite initial IDF claims, the ambulances were properly labeled as Red Crescent.
The Jerusalem Post was not provided with other cases in which the IDF utilized such a procedure to leave bodies of aid workers for the UN to collect.
Har-Even is probing around 350 incidents from the war and has sent around 51 to the IDF legal division to probe, with around approximately 40 incidents going directly to the legal division without needing a prior probe by Har-Even, due to their severity.
The deputy Golani commander who is being fired is otherwise viewed heroically by the IDF. He fought during many months of the war, was wounded, fought to recover, returned to work overseas, was called back to replace a different Golani commander who was wounded, and only recently fell into this current incident.