MILES PARKS, HOST:
The Israeli military released findings today on its investigation of what happened the night troops killed 15 Palestinian medics last month, and it says it's uncovered what it calls several professional failures. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi was at the military press briefing about the findings today, and she joins us now from Tel Aviv. Hi, Hadeel.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Hello.
PARKS: So tell us more about what we know happened last month.
AL-SHALCHI: Right. So what we know is that on March 23, Israeli troops who were conducting an operation in Rafah, south Gaza, opened fire on a fire truck and ambulances and killed 15 Palestinian medics. The soldiers then dug a mass grave, buried the bodies and bulldozed over the vehicles. When the grave was found a week later, the Israeli military said that the ambulances in the fire truck approached the troops suspiciously and they didn't have any lights on. But then, earlier this month, the Palestinian Red Crescent released a video found on the body of one of the killed medics, and that video showed that the vehicles were clearly marked, driving slowly with emergency lights on and flashing red lights. And that's when the military walked back its original account and said some of their assessment was mistaken and that an investigation was started.
PARKS: Wow. So what else came out at this briefing about what they found?
AL-SHALCHI: Right. So first, the military said that the field commander who ordered the shooting made the decision because of, quote, "poor night visibility." We were told repeatedly that the troops were in this war mindset, that they had just shot down a vehicle earlier they said did belong to Hamas - without providing evidence for that, though. The investigation also said that the troops buried the bodies because they wanted to use that road as an evacuation route later. The military said that that decision was understandable, but the decision to crush the ambulances was wrong. But they were adamant that none of this was done to conceal the event. And then Israel said that 6 of the 15 medics killed were members of Hamas. Now, Israel has said repeatedly that Hamas hides its militants in ambulances, but in this case, when we pressed them, they couldn't really tell us how they knew that these members were from Hamas.
PARKS: Did the military say anything about whether anyone would be held accountable for what happened?
AL-SHALCHI: Right. So first, the military said that the field commander who started the shooting was going to be fired from his position. The commander of the brigade will receive a reprimand for making the decisions that happened after the shooting, including the burial of the medics. And then we pressed the spokespeople. What, if anything, is going to change after this incident? How will you make sure that this doesn't happen again? And they just insisted that this event was a, quote, "operational misunderstanding." They said, we trust in the good intentions of our soldiers, that they already have mechanisms in place to keep this from happening. But then we also know that Palestinians in Gaza and human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the Israeli military of mishandling its own investigations.
PARKS: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv, thank you.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome.
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