The IDF on Saturday night tried to reset the narrative of its mistaken killing of 14 Red Cross officials and the wounding of one additional official in what has turned out to be one of the worst IDF attacks on international aid workers in the war.
This was after The New York Times had obtained a cell phone recording of one of the killed paramedics, who was found with 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in Rafah late last month.
On March 23, at 4:30 a.m., the Golani Brigade set an ambush for Hamas forces near Tel Sultan in Rafah.
The ambush was successful, and the IDF troops killed the Hamas forces.
Between then and 6:00 a.m., additional vehicles passed through the ambush area, including ambulances, without incident.
Around 6:00 a.m., the IDF troops mistook a group of ambulances for Hamas terrorists and ambushed them from a distance behind set positions.
Hamas has routinely used ambulances
Here, a key aspect of the IDF narrative is that Hamas has routinely used ambulances throughout the war.
But the IDF’s explanation for the ambush already has problems. Initially, the military claimed that the ambulances’ lights were off, but in fact, at least some of the ambulances’ lights were on, though possibly the first ambulance had its lights off.
Also, despite initial IDF claims, the ambulances were properly labeled as Red Cross.
After killing the Red Cross workers, the IDF still believed them to be Hamas based on examining six of the bodies, though the military’s explanation of what about the aid workers made them seem like Hamas forces was unclear.
At some later point, they realized these were Red Cross workers and notified the UN.
If such an incident happens in an area where the IDF is not staying, but only did a temporary penetration, then they send the UN coordinates and gather the bodies in some kind of net to leave for the organization, according to the military.
However, the UN did not find the bodies, and later, when the IDF returned to the area, it buried the bodies to protect them from damage during any expected new fight, according to the narrative.
Again, the UN could not find the bodies until the IDF unearthed them, and the UN later found them.
The Jerusalem Post was not provided with other cases in which the IDF used such a procedure to leave bodies of aid workers for the UN.
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