With the sirens blaring, a number of ambulances and a fire truck are heading towards a vehicle that appears to have driven into a ditch. The clip seems to be filmed from inside one of the ambulances.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has presented the film to the UN Security Council. The New York Times, which received the nearly seven-minute-long recording from a UN source, has verified that it was recorded early in the morning on March 23 in Rafah.
Birds can be heard chirping and dawn seems to be approaching. But when the rescue personnel leave their vehicles to approach the crashed car, the sounds are replaced by gunfire. According to the NY Times, the shooting continues for five minutes. The person filming is heard saying goodbye to his mother before he dies.
Found in mass grave
Several days later – when Israel allowed the search for medical personnel – he was found along with his 14 colleagues in a mass grave. Eight of them came from the Red Crescent, six from the Palestinian civil defense, and one was employed by the UN. In an unusually sharp statement, the UN accuses Israel of having killed them.
Israel has claimed that it did not "randomly attack" an ambulance, but that several vehicles were "identified as suspiciously moving" towards Israeli forces without lights or clear markings.
In response to a question about the film clip, Israel's military said on Saturday to the AP news agency that the incident is "under thorough investigation".
"All claims, including the documentation circulating about the incident, will be thoroughly and deeply examined to understand the sequence of events and the handling of the situation," the military said.
"Ready to save lives"
One of the medical personnel is still missing.
Israel's military has said that nine Hamas terrorists were killed on the spot. Jonathan Whittall, Gaza chief for the UN's humanitarian aid organization Ocha, dismisses the notion that any of the medical personnel belonged to Hamas.
This is medical personnel I have met personally before. They were buried in their uniforms with their gloves on. They were ready to save lives, he says, according to AP.
