New developments in the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip last month have come to light, with evidence reportedly contradicting the Israel Defense Forces’ claim that soldiers did not fire indiscriminately at the medical workers.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that its analysis of the IDF’s own materials collected as part of an internal investigation into the incident contradicted the army’s claim that soldiers did not shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian ambulances and a fire engine in the early hours of 23 March.
Instead,Haaretz said, soldiers fired continuously at the vehicles for three and a half minutes from close range despite the aid workers’ attempts to identify themselves.
The family of Assad al-Nsasrah, one of two survivors of the attack, filed a petition on Wednesday with Israel’s high court seeking details of his detention in Israel. Israeli authorities confirmed Nsasrah was in custody last week, but under emergency war legislation the whereabouts of detainees from Gaza can be kept secret and they can be barred from meeting a lawyer for 45 days. Nsasrah is not allowed legal counsel until 7 May.
In Israeli political news on Thursday, the supreme court granted Benjamin Netanyahu an extension until Sunday to file an official rebuttal to an affidavit from his fired Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.
The Israeli prime minister was expected to accuse the head of the general security service of lying in an affidavit that was supposed to be submitted by the end of Thursday in response to claims the security chief made in his own 31-page affidavit earlier this week.
Israel’s supreme court halted Bar’s controversial firing after a cabinet vote last month, widespread protests and a petition from the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, on the grounds it may be unlawful. The battle between the two men is pushing the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.
The Shin Bet has been investigating Netanyahu’s close aides for alleged breaches of national security, including leaking classified documents to foreign media, and allegedly taking money from Qatar, which is known to have given significant financial aid to Hamas.
In his affidavit, Bar accused Netanyahu of moving to sack him after his refusal to fulfil requests including spying on anti-government protesters and helping the premier postpone his testimony in his criminal trial. He also claimed it had been made clear to him that he was expected to be “personally loyal” to the prime minister.
Netanyahu has said he lost trust in Bar’s capacity to lead the Shin Bet. He escalated his attack on Bar on Wednesday night, before his expected filing, by sharing a recording of a phone conversation between a Shin Bet agent and a police officer allegedly proving that the agency “persecutes rightwing activists”.
The relationship between the two men, already strained, deteriorated further after the release of a Shin Bet investigation pointing to policy issues in the run-up to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
Netanyahu has never accepted any responsibility for Israel’s worst national security disaster, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, led to 251 being abducted and held hostage in the Gaza Strip, and ignited the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
The head of Israel’s powerful Histadrut union, Arnon Bar-David, threatened on Thursday to call a nationwide strike if the government disobeyed a potential high court order to reinstate Bar, describing such a move as a “red line”.
Two previous Histadrut strikes have put Netanyahu’s far-right coalition under significant pressure. One in March 2023 was triggered by the prime minster’s decision to fire the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over his opposition to a proposed judicial overhaul. Strike action in September 2024 took place in favour of a hostage deal and ceasefire in the war in Gaza after Hamas murdered six captives.
In Gaza on Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes across the strip killed at least 28 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose data the UN assesses to be accurate.
