Sawt Falasteen - Israel says Gaza medics' killing a 'mistake,' to dismiss commander

But the probe found no evidence of "indiscriminate fire" by the troops.

The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near the southern Gaza city of Rafah early on March 23, just days into Israel's renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.

The incident has drawn international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

Germany had called for an urgent investigation and "accountability of the perpetrators."

The probe said six of the dead were Hamas militants, although no weapons were found.

"The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident," the summary of the investigation said.

Reserve Major General Yoav Har-Even, who led the investigation, accepted that troops involved in the incident had committed an error.

"We're saying it was a mistake. We don't think it's a daily mistake," he told journalists when asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military.

Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.

Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the shooting scene in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan area.

OCHA described it as a mass grave.

Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has said an autopsy of the victims revealed that "all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill".

The military rejected his accusation.

"The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting," the probe said, amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.

"The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them," it said, adding that six of the 15 were "identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists".

It had earlier said nine of those killed were militants.

"The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians," the probe added, but did not provide evidence that six of the men were militants.

Har-Even acknowledged that no weapons were found on the dead men.

- 'No attempt to conceal' -

Days after the incident, the army said its soldiers fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles", with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.

But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military's account.

The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.

The military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles "to prevent further harm."

"There was no attempt to conceal the event," it said.

"We don't lie," military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Sunday.

The military said a deputy commander "will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief".

The military said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.

- 'Breach of orders' -

In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.

In the second incident, around an hour later, troops fired "on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances very close to the area in which the troops were operating, after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat," the military said.

"The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle's passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire."

The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle "due to operational errors in breach of regulations," the military said.

The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an "operational misunderstanding by the troops."

"The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting," it added.

The UN said in early April that after the team of first responders was killed, other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.

Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP earlier he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops.

Another medic also survived and the military confirmed Sunday he was in its custody.

C.Hamad--SF-PST