Yasmine Shahine
BBC Arabic
BBC
Rifaat Radwan filmed the incident in which he and 14 other emergency workers were shot dead by Israeli forces
“My heart and soul were dead when Lifat was killed,” says Haja Um Mohammed, the mother of a Palestinian paramedic who was one of the 15 paramedics killed by Israeli forces last month in southern Gaza.
Rifaat Radwan, 23, was traveling a Palestinian Red Crescent Association (PRCS) ambulance on a convoy of emergency vehicles when he fired fire on March 23rd in the outskirts of Rafa.
“I didn’t expect him to be killed, especially as the area was classified as ‘green’.
Israeli forces initially claimed that the forces fired as the fleet approached “suspectly” in the dark without flashing headlights or emergency lights.
However, a video filmed by Rifaat and found on his phone after his body was retrieved showed that the vehicle’s lights were on when he answered a call to help the injured person.
“Mom, please forgive me… this is the path I chose to help people,” Lifert can be heard saying on the video just before he was killed.
Um Mohammed believes he is seeking her forgiveness, knowing he will never see him again.
“I entrusted the referee to God every time he went out to work,” she says. “He was brave and traveled across Gaza from north to south.”
Gazamedic killing videos analyzed by BBC Verify
Rifaat began volunteering at PRCS after Hamas launched a military campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023 following an unprecedented cross-border attack.
Um Mohammed says her son enjoyed his humanitarian work.
“He carried the injured and crossed to Egypt for treatment through the intersection of Rafa.”
Um Mohammed explains that on the day he died, Lifat went out in an ambulance after several reports of murder in an Israeli air attack.
“I didn’t know he would be one of them. [too]She says.
It was a week ago that his body and his colleague’s bodies were buried in shallow graves on March 30th.
“Instead of celebrating Eid al Fitr at Refat, we gathered his body at the Red Cross from Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to bury him,” she recalls.
“It was disassembled so badly and they couldn’t see it to me.”
Um Mohammed says he was a “absolutely beautiful” human and was the sole supporter of her and his father after his brother got married.
Following the discovery of the video footage, Israeli military officials changed the original accounts that claimed the vehicle was approaching without lights on. Officials said the person who gave the account was “wrong.”
Officials also said the forces perceived emergency workers as a threat due to their previous encounters in the area, and at least six people killed were Hamas operatives without providing evidence.
The military buried the bodies, including Refert, in the sand, to protect them from wildlife, officials said.
They were not revealed until a week after the incident, as international organizations, including the United Nations, were unable to organize or find a safe passage into the region.
When an unreleased team found the body, they also discovered Rifaat’s mobile phone containing footage of the incident.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has promised to “a thorough investigation” of the incident, saying it “will understand the handling of the series of events and circumstances.”
PRCS claims that emergency workers targeted a “sequence of intentional attacks” that constituted “full war crimes,” and called for an independent international investigation.
“We need justice for the victims. We need to make sure that all those responsible are detained to explain. Without this, the crime continues to happen,” PRCS spokeswomanneval Farsaf said Wednesday.
“I have already lost 27 PRCS colleagues. They were killed while they were doing humanitarian work. They were all killed while wearing the red crescent moon crest. This is unacceptable. It never happened. We are not targeted.
Rifaat’s fellow medic Munther Abed said he survived the attack by jumping into the floor behind the ambulance
Mancer Abedo, a paramedic who survived the incident, says he and his colleagues were fired without warning.
“I fell on the floor behind the vehicle and I didn’t hear any noise from my colleagues except for their death,” he told the BBC last week.
“Then the Israeli special forces arrested me, stuck my head to the ground, and I didn’t know what had happened to the team.”
Holding the tears down, Mancer added:
“I wanted to die of what I saw.”
He says his phone was confiscated when he was taken into custody.
“They interrogated me for 15 hours, both be-stripped, insulted, and physical and verbal torture,” he added.
The BBC has placed his claims on the IDF, but has not responded yet.
PRCS said that the area where emergency workers were located was not classified as a “red zone” by the Israeli military, so no prior adjustments were required to access the site.
A preliminary forensic report said it showed that paramedics were killed by “injuries of multiple gunshot wounds to the upper part of the body.”
He also rejected the IDF’s internal investigation and rejected the IDF’s accusations that Hamas operatives were among those killed.
AFP
Rifaat Radwan’s father did not allow his mother, Umm Mohammed, to see his body
In a statement Monday, the IDF said its Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, had directed the results of the initial investigation into the case to be presented and “deeply pursued and completed by a general staff investigation mechanism in the coming days.”
“All claims filed in connection with the case will be considered through the mechanism and presented in a detailed and thorough manner for decisions regarding how the event is handled,” he added.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel killed around 1,200 people and 251 were taken hostage.
More than 50,750 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamasran Ministry of Health.
The ceasefire contract announced in January collapsed in March, with 59 hostages still being held in Gaza, of which 24 are believed to be still alive.
