“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. …..more
