Medic survived Gaza shootings

23/5/2025 6:18

The head of the Palestinian

Red Crescent said on Thursday that a paramedic who survived an

attack that killed 15 aid workers was spared because he asked

Israeli soldiers for mercy in Hebrew, adding that he hoped the

man's testimony would help win justice.



Assad Al-Nassasrah, a Red Crescent paramedic, survived

shootings that killed 15 emergency and aid workers on March 23

in southern Gaza in an incident that drew international

condemnation. Their bodies were found buried in a shallow grave

a week later by Red Crescent and U.N. officials who accused

Israeli forces of killing them.



Al-Nassasrah went missing and then was freed from Israeli

detention on April 29 and has not yet publicly commented. One

other paramedic survived.



Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent

Society, told reporters in Geneva that Al-Nassasrah was spared

after he pleaded in Hebrew and said his mother was a Palestinian

citizen of Israel.



"What does Assad say in Hebrew? 'Don't shoot. I am Israeli.'

And the soldier got a bit confused," he told reporters. "That

confusion ... made him survive."



"Assad will be a witness that can put all the Israeli

stories in shambles," he added.



Israel's prime minister's office and its diplomatic mission

in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



The Israeli military initially said its soldiers had opened

fire on vehicles that approached their position "suspiciously"

in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed six

militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in

Red Crescent vehicles.



But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead

men and published by the PRCS showed emergency workers in their

uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with

their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.



On April 20, the Israeli military said a review into the

incident had found there had been "several professional

failures". It said a deputy commander, a reservist who was the

field commander, would be dismissed.



The military advocate general is conducting its own

investigation and criminal charges could be pursued, according

to the military.



Asked how Al-Nassasrah was treated in custody, Al-Khatib

said: "like a Palestinian". He said Al-Nassasrah had been

interrogated and that he had mental health issues, but did not

elaborate further.



Social media footage shared by the Palestinian Red Crescent

dated the day after his release showed Al-Nassasrah crying as he

hugged medics and looking dazed while being examined in a Gaza

hospital. Eight of those killed were from the PRCS, which

provides medical aid in Gaza and is part of the world's largest

humanitarian network.



Al-Khatib said the organisation was working with lawyers and

considering formal submissions to international courts and to

the U.N. Security Council.



"We think the international community is responsible to

provide justice to those killed," he said. "We don't train our

people to go and die."