GAZA CITY – “Forgive me, Mother… this is the path I chose to help people. The army has arrived.” These were the scattered and broken last words uttered by Palestinian paramedic Rifaat Radwan as he documented his final moments before being executed by the Israeli army along with 14 of his colleagues on March 23 in Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The 6 minutes and 42 seconds long video was retrieved by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society from Radwan’s phone after his body was recovered from a mass grave where the Israeli army had buried the bodies of ambulance and civil defense crews in an attempt to cover up its horrific and deliberate crime. The footage was released earlier on Saturday.
Throughout the video, the sound of intense gunfire targeting the medical and civil defense teams can be heard for over five minutes, amid the screams of some and pleas for help, while others could be heard uttering the Islamic declaration of faith (Shahada).
The footage further reveals that many of the ambulance and civil defense personnel were still alive when Israeli forces arrived, indicating that the army executed them on purpose and with a clear intent to commit this atrocity.
The video contradicts Israel’s claims about targeting these teams and clearly shows that the ambulances struck by the army had all of their emergency lights activated, and the paramedics were wearing the standard reflective uniforms designated for emergency response.
On March 31, the Israeli army claimed in a statement that it had not “randomly attacked ambulances,” but rather observed “suspiciously approaching vehicles” that did not activate their lights or emergency signals, prompting the army to fire at them.
The army also claimed that its attack on civil defense and Red Crescent teams killed “a member of Hamas’s military wing, along with eight other operatives belonging to the Palestinian group and Islamic Jihad.”
– Shocking moments
The video shows that as soon as the ambulance teams exited their vehicles to rescue fellow responders who had already been targeted, Israeli forces opened a barrage of gunfire on them.
Seconds later, Radwan began to say the Shahada, repeating it—a sign that he had been shot, as his voice began to fade gradually.
In the background of the now-darkened video, the screams of his colleagues can be heard—some crying for help, others repeating the Shahada as well.
With heavy, broken words, Radwan said, “Forgive me, Mother… This is the path I chose to help people.”
He continued: “O Allah, accept me as a martyr. Forgive me and have mercy on me.”
Moments later, gunfire is heard more clearly, suggesting that the shooters were drawing nearer, as documented in the video.
At the very end of the recording, Radwan says in a faint voice: “The army has arrived.”
– Beyond the footage
Radwan’s statement in the video that the army reached the area while they were still alive clearly indicates that Israeli forces executed them deliberately after identifying who they were and the nature of their humanitarian work—which was visibly evident.
This is further confirmed by a previous statement from the Gaza Civil Defense, which reported that the bodies of victims were found buried about 200 meters from their destroyed vehicles, wearing the recognizable orange uniforms used in humanitarian and rescue work. This was confirmed by Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal during a press conference on Wednesday.
He added that some civil defense personnel were found with their hands and feet tied and bullet wounds to their heads and chests—clear evidence they were executed at close range after being identified.
One civil defense worker was found decapitated, while the remains of the others were reduced to “body parts.”
Additionally, the first minute of the video shows the ambulances intact and illuminated—clear evidence that the army deliberately targeted vehicles bearing the Palestinian Red Crescent emblem.
Beyond any doubt, the footage demonstrates that Israel deliberately and insistently committed this horrific crime, which Civil Defense spokesperson Basal described to Anadolu as a crime “beyond imagination—unprecedented in modern history.”
According to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, several members of the civil defense team were found with their hands and feet bound and visible bullet wounds on their heads and torsos, suggesting they were executed at close range after being identified for their humanitarian work. One of the civil defense personnel had been decapitated, and the remaining bodies were found in pieces.
Basal described the Israeli attack as a “crime beyond imagination—unprecedented in modern history.”
More than 50,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s military onslaught since October 2023. -AA
