‘Point-Blank Range’: How Israel Executed 15 Medics and Rescue Workers in Gaza
I had a difficult time writing this essay because I could not stop thinking about the level of evil needed to carry this out.
Diana Buttu
Apr 03, 2025
On March 31, 2025, members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services pray by the bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces. Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
“What is the use, Diana? Why do we have to keep displaying our dead? Can’t we just die in dignity?” These were the words sent to me by one of my friends in Gaza. After nearly 18 months of witnessing Israel
kill more than 60,000 Palestinians, flatten buildings, mosques, and schools, and bomb hospitals and universities, it was Israel’s killing of Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers that led him to send me those words.
It is obvious why. Yes, the Israeli army kills paramedics and rescue workers, just as it targets journalists, doctors, professors, teachers, and just about anyone else. But this time, it was different: the Israeli army gunned down
15 rescue workers last month but only after
reportedly making sure that at least some of their hands and legs were tied, unable to move. In other words, Israeli soldiers executed these rescue workers at point-blank range; they were
reportedly found with approximately 20 gunshot wounds (each) to the head and chest. But the soldiers did not just tie up and then execute them. No, this time, the ambulances and firetrucks that these rescue workers were in – vehicles that were on their way to rescue other Palestinians in Rafah that Israel had decided to bomb – were flattened and then
buried in the sand by the Israeli army. It took days to find them, and
one remains missing.
Humanitarians recover the bodies of first responders, still in their uniforms, who were killed by Israel while traveling in clearly marked vehicles near Rafah, southern Gaza. Photo: OCHA
I have had a difficult time even writing these words because I cannot stop thinking about the level of evil needed to carry this out. First, they had to stop the
ambulance, the UN vehicle, and the fire truck. Then, they had to tie up the rescue workers. Then, they had to shoot them (repeatedly). Then, they had to flatten the vehicles they were in, and then they had to use a bulldozer to bury the vehicles. This isn’t the work of one “rogue” soldier – as Palestinians are always led to believe, but the work of a group of soldiers – soldiers who have been told time and again that their actions in Gaza have
no consequences and that they can do as they please.
The H-Word ‘Justification’
After 18 months of seeing this, I am still in awe of the ways in which politicians and some journalists can come up with word salads to downplay or ignore Israel’s crimes. As we see Palestinian children being pulled from rubble without heads and Palestinian bodies mangled, politicians continue to use words like “restraint” (but only after condemning Palestinians, of course).
For its part, Israel continues to flip international law on its head: combatants are no longer those engaged in combat – but according to the Israeli definition, by simply labeling someone “Hamas,” they become “legitimate targets.” It doesn’t matter if the alleged “target” is asleep in a tent with his family members, who are
killed alongside him; or in
a hospital room getting medical treatment and
patients are also killed or injured; or is a
journalist who has never been in combat – all that matters is that Israel has smeared them with the label of “Hamas” and that, for many, seems to be enough. This is how Israel has managed to kill
209 Palestinian journalists and put targets on the heads of others without major protest by world leaders, or even by other journalists. Just claim that they are the H-word, and all is fine.
Journalists gather in the courtyard of the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on March 25, 2025 to protest the targeting of their colleagues, Hossam Shabat and Muhammad Mansour, who were killed in Israeli military strikes. Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images
But for Israeli soldiers, it is no longer just a question of “Hamas” for the UN too has become a “legitimate target.” How dare the UN try to say anything about Israel’s genocide? How dare the UN speak out about
Israel’s month-long blockade of Gaza, preventing even the flow of flour into Gaza? Surely that makes them a “legitimate target,” so let’s bomb
a UNOPS building, too (of course alongside the other UN buildings and other UN workers that they have already bombed)! What’s the worst that can happen? A call for an investigation? Ha!
Why Lie When You Don’t Have To?
Yes, there are
protests in Israel. But as
mentioned time and again, these protests are NOT opposing genocide; they are simply to secure the release of Israelis held in Gaza. There are no signs that read “stop bulldozing rescue workers” or “paramedics are not targets”; no placards that say “stop starving Gaza”. Nope. None.
And so this is now the pattern. As world leaders continue to talk about going back to the negotiating table and the ever-so-important release of Israeli soldiers, Israel’s bombing and
starvation campaigns continue. They seem to believe that Israeli leaders don’t
really mean what they say.
For their part, Israeli leaders and the Israeli courts have become clear. There is no reason to hide – there are no repercussions anyway, so why lie? And so here is what they say: the Israeli courts – the very courts that have been so lauded for their “liberalism” refused to comment on
Israel’s policy of starving Gaza, preferring instead to adopt the position of the very government that is headed by someone who is charged with the
crime of starving a population. Netanyahu has been even clearer: He said that Israel will continue to negotiate “under fire” (he means while bombing) and that Israel would “enable the implementation of
the Trump plan – the voluntary migration plan.” He added, “That is the plan; we do not hide it, we are ready to discuss it at any time.”
And so there you have it. We live in a world now where Palestinians can be bombed to pieces and have the
highest percentage of
child amputees; where people are treated as human ping pong balls, told to evacuate from one area to another, only to be bombed in “
safe zones”; where a population can be deliberately starved; where anyone is labeled a “legitimate target;” where bombing hospitals is acceptable; and where executing rescue workers only to then bury them in a mass grave is acceptable. So yes, I understand why my friend sent me the message: he wants to die in dignity because he knows he will never be able to live in dignity.
Diana Buttu is a Haifa-based lawyer and analyst who was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in the early 2000s and is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestinian and Israeli issues. She writes Zeteo’s ‘A Diary from a Palestinian in Israel.’
www.eurogamer.net
