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    Israel’s Military Cites ‘Professional Failures’ in Killings of Gaza Medics

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    In a statement summarizing its investigation into the deadly episode, the military said a deputy commander would be dismissed.The Israeli military said Sunday that an investigation into its soldiers’ deadly attack on medics in Gaza last month had identified “several professional failures” and that a commander would be dismissed.The military had previously acknowledged carrying out the attack in Rafah, southern Gaza, that killed 14 rescue workers and a United Nations employee who drove by after the others were shot. But it had offered shifting explanations for why its troops fired on the emergency vehicles and said it was investigating the episode, one that prompted international condemnation and that experts described as a war crime.On Sunday — nearly a month after the attack — the military released a statement summarizing its investigation.“The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident,” it said.The deadly shootings of the rescue workers resulted from “an operational misunderstanding” by troops on the ground “who believed they faced a tangible threat from enemy forces.” Firing on a U.N. vehicle, the statement added, involved “a breach of orders” in a combat setting.Israeli troops fired on ambulances and a fire truck sent by the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the Civil Defense, as well as the United Nations vehicle that passed by separately, according to witness accounts, video and audio of the attack.The military said on Sunday that “due to poor night visibility,” the deputy commander on the ground “did not initially recognize the vehicles as ambulances.”Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza, mourned medics on March 31 who were killed by Israeli fire while on a rescue mission.Hatem Khaled/ReutersTwo weeks ago, the Israeli military acknowledged that some of its early assertions, based on accounts from troops involved in the killing, were partly mistaken.Military officials had initially asserted, repeatedly and erroneously, that the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” toward the troops “without headlights or emergency signals.”The military backtracked on that assertion a day after The New York Times published a video, discovered on the cellphone of one of the dead paramedics, that showed the clearly marked vehicles flashing their lights and coming to a halt before the attack.Israeli soldiers later buried most of the bodies in a mass grave, crushed the ambulances, fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, and buried those as well.In the statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said that “removing the bodies was reasonable under the circumstances, but the decision to crush the vehicles was wrong.”The commander of the brigade involved will receive a reprimand “for his overall responsibility for the incident,” it said, while the battalion’s deputy commander will be dismissed because of his responsibilities “and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief.”Bilal Shbair More

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      Eyewitnesses Recount Deadly Israeli Attack on Medics in Gaza

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      The New York Times interviewed two people who described being detained by Israeli soldiers and looking on as they opened fire on ambulances and a fire truck, killing 15.It was still dark out when a group of ambulances and a fire truck dispatched by Palestinian emergency response services slowed to a halt in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, early on March 23. They had been sent to find their paramedic colleagues, who had headed out in an ambulance on a rescue mission earlier that morning before disappearing.Now the convoy stopped next to the missing ambulance, which stood by the side of the road near some U.N. warehouses. When paramedics got out to look, Israeli soldiers about 50 meters away opened fire on them, according to two men who said they had witnessed the shootings.The two men saw what happened, they said, because they were being held by the same Israeli troops.One of the two, Munther Abed, 27, a volunteer paramedic, said he had been detained after surviving an earlier attack on the missing ambulance that killed two other crew members. The other man, Dr. Saeed al-Bardawil, 55, a physician, said he had been detained alongside Mr. Abed when he and his son were stopped by Israeli troops on their way to go fishing about 4:45 a.m.The New York Times interviewed the two men separately in Gaza days after the United Nations said it had found the bodies of 15 rescue workers — eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six from Gaza’s Civil Defense and one from the United Nations — in a mass grave. Their ambulances, their fire truck and a U.N. vehicle, which had been crushed, were half-buried nearby. The United Nations has accused Israel of killing the 15 workers, discarding their bodies and destroying the vehicles.The two men’s accounts appear to support those accusations. Although their stories could not be independently confirmed, the details they gave also matched the sequence of events in a video obtained and verified by The New York Times, discovered on the cellphone of one of the dead paramedics. That video shows an intense barrage of gunfire hitting the convoy just as dawn breaks.A video captures the moment Israeli troops opened fire on a group of medics in Gaza in late March.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel Says Its Account of Rescue Workers Killed in Gaza Was Partly ‘Mistaken’

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      The Israeli military had previously asserted that the workers had been “advancing suspiciously” toward its troops. A video obtained by The New York Times on Friday appeared to contradict that account.The Israeli military on Saturday acknowledged that the initial accounts from troops involved in the killing last month of 15 people in southern Gaza — who the United Nations said were paramedics and rescue workers — had been partially “mistaken.”The assessment, which was shared in a briefing with reporters by an Israeli military official, came the day after a video obtained by The New York Times appeared to contradict the military’s earlier version of events. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity under army rules.The Israeli military official said the internal investigation of the attack, which has drawn international scrutiny and condemnation, is ongoing.Briefing reporters on Saturday night on the military’s initial findings, the official said forces from a reserve infantry brigade had been lying in ambush along a road to the north of the Gazan city of Rafah in the pre-dawn hours of March 23 and, at 4 a.m., had killed what he described as two Hamas security personnel and detained a third one.Two hours later, as dawn was breaking, a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck approached the same spot. The Israeli forces were still on the ground and received a report from a surveillance aircraft that the convoy was moving toward them, the official said. When the rescue workers arrived and left their vehicles, he said, the forces believed that more Hamas operatives had arrived and opened fire on the occupants of the vehicles from afar.The Israeli military had previously asserted, repeatedly and erroneously, that the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” toward the troops “without headlights or emergency signals.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On

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      The U.N. has said Israel killed the workers. The video appears to contradict Israel’s version of events, which said the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.A video captured the moment Israeli troops opened fire on a group of medics in Gaza in late March.A video, discovered on the cellphone of a paramedic who was found along with 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in the Gaza in late March, shows that the ambulances and fire truck that they were traveling in were clearly marked and had their emergency signal lights on when Israeli troops hit them with a barrage of gunfire.Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a news conference on Friday at the United Nations moderated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that they had presented the nearly seven-minute recording, which was obtained by The New York Times, to the U.N. Security Council.An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said earlier this week that Israeli forces did not “randomly attack” an ambulance, but that several vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot. Colonel Shoshani said earlier in the week that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video.The Times obtained the video from a senior diplomat at the United Nations who asked not to be identified to be able to share sensitive information.The Times verified the location and timing of the video, which was taken in the city of southern city of Rafah early on March 23. Filmed from what appears to be the front interior of a moving vehicle, it shows a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, clearly marked, with headlights and flashing lights turned on, driving south on a road to the north of Rafah in the early morning. The first rays of sun can be seen, and birds are chirping.The convoy stops when it encounters a vehicle that had veered onto the side of the road — one ambulance had been sent earlier to aid wounded civilians and had come under attack. The new rescue vehicles detour to the side of the road.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Some Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Were Shot Multiple Times, Officials Say

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      The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that nearly all of the 15 bodies recovered had gunshot wounds.Days after the United Nations accused Israel of killing 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza, officials who recovered the bodies or carried out the autopsies said some of the rescue workers were shot multiple times before being buried in a mass grave.The Palestine Red Crescent Society, which had eight of its members killed and carried out the recovery mission, said that nearly all 15 bodies showed gunshot wounds, according to a spokeswoman, Nebal Farsakh. One paramedic was found with his hands and feet tied toward his body, Ms. Farsakh said.“My colleagues were shot; the bodies who were retrieved, many of them have multiple gun shots. We found all of them thrown in a mass grave, the bodies were put next to each other and covered with sand,” said Ms. Farsakh in a telephone interview from Ramallah.The deaths of the aid workers, who first went missing on March 23, have drawn international condemnation in recent days.On that day, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, ambulances and a U.N. vehicle came under attack from Israel’s military, then went silent. On Sunday, rescue teams found 15 bodies, most in a shallow mass grave along with their crushed ambulances and the vehicle marked with the U.N. logo. The United Nations, which is typically cautious about assigning blame, accused Israel of killing them.An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said on X on Monday that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. He said Israeli forces “did not randomly attack” an ambulance, but that several vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Haiti Names New Prime Minister to Try to Lead Country Out of Crisis

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      Garry Conille is taking on the office just ahead of the arrival of a Kenyan-led international police force charged with helping restore order to the violence-torn nation.An experienced international aid official, Garry Conille, was unanimously appointed prime minister of Haiti by a Presidential Transition Council on Tuesday, which tasked him with leading the country out of its current crisis until elections for a new president can be held.Mr. Conille will take on his new role just as a U.N.-backed security mission led by Kenyan police is scheduled to begin operations in the violence-torn Caribbean nation, which is battling to restore political stability and tackle armed gangs who control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince.Fluent in English, French and Creole, Mr. Conille’s credentials include a 25-year career working for the United Nations and other aid agencies. He also briefly led Haiti as prime minister over a decade ago during another period of crisis following the devastating 2010 earthquake.But Mr. Conille has spent many of the last few years outside the country, and his perhaps rusty domestic political skills are sure to be tested by the highly volatile situation he will encounter as prime minister.He will not, however, have to face any political battles with Haiti’s fractious Parliament, which has sat vacant for months because of the country’s inability to hold elections amid the violence and turmoil.“He is a safe choice to appease the international community, but he’s also spent the last two decades working mostly outside Haiti in the U.N. system,” said Jake Johnston, a Haiti expert at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More