Shanmugam condemns Israeli soldiers’ killing of emergency workers in Gaza

SINGAPORE – Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said the Israeli army’s actions in the recent killing of emergency workers in Gaza on March 23 “deserve universal condemnation”.

In a Facebook post on April 8, he wrote that the Israeli army had lied about the incident and tried to cover up the illegal actions of its soldiers.

He added: “Israel will say Hamas does the same. But is that even an excuse for a State that says its values are based on Rule of Law?

“These actions deserve universal condemnation.”

Israeli forces in Gaza

had

killed 15 Palestinian emergency workers on March 23,

with autopsies showing they were shot with the intent to kill.

The emergency workers were from the Red Cross, the Palestinian Red Crescent, the United Nations and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service.

The Israeli army issued a statement on March 31 claiming the emergency vehicles that the workers were in had “advanced suspiciously towards the troops”. It also claimed that the vehicles were “without headlights or emergency signals”.

However, on April 7, humanitarian organisation

Palestinian Red Crescent published a video of the incident

showing the convoy of emergency vehicles with their headlights and emergency signals on. Shortly after, the convoy is besieged by gunfire for five minutes.

The video was reportedly retrieved from a mobile phone found on one of the bodies of the workers buried in a shallow grave near the site of the incident.

The Palestinian Red Crescent has called for an international investigation into the “full-fledged war crime”.

The Israeli army has since admitted it was wrong in its account, said Mr Shanmugam.

It said on April 7 that the incident occurred “due to a sense of threat”. It also said it had identified six Hamas militants as being in the vicinity during the incident, and that it is carrying out a more in-depth investigation.

Hamas attacked Israeli communities on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people. Israel responded by launching a campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 50,000 people so far.

Mr Shanmugam said video footage shows the Israeli soldiers killing the emergency workers in cold blood, and that the Israeli army had then lied about it.

“Massacres, lies,” he wrote.

“Soldiers may do wrong. But the army as an institution has a higher duty to do the right thing. But the army seems to have tried to cover up the solders’ illegal actions.”