OPENED FIRE
The military official said initial findings from the investigation showed troops had opened fire on a vehicle at around 4am (10am, Singapore time), killing two members of the Hamas internal security forces, and taking another prisoner, who the official said had admitted under interrogation to being in Hamas.
As time passed, several vehicles passed along the road until, at around 6am (12pm, Singapore time), he said troops received word from aerial surveillance that a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching.
“They feel this is another incident like what happened at 4am and they opened fire,” the official said.
He said aerial surveillance footage showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, and he denied reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and shot them at close range.
“It’s not from close. They opened fire from afar,” he said. “There’s no mistreatment of the people there.”
He said the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying at least some of them as militants. However he did not explain what evidence had prompted the assessment.
“And in their eyes they had an encounter with terrorists, that is a successful encounter with terrorists.”
He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered. UN officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“There was no incident where the IDF tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately.”
Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to stop animals from getting at them, the official said.
He said the vehicles were pushed out of the way by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road but he could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.
