2025-04-11
30 分钟Today, how a mobile phone video exposed the truth about the massacre of Palestinian medics.
In the early hours of the 23rd of March,
a convoy of cars are travelling through the darkness, away from the southern Ghazan city of Raffa.
It's about 4.30 in the morning.
It's the middle of the night, it's pitch black,
there are no lights anywhere and this convoy of emergency vehicles are driving along a dusty road in an area of sand dunes just outside Raffa.
The convoy have been sent to find a group of Palestinian medics who disappeared earlier that morning.
There's a fire engine and there's two ambulances and they're all clearly marked as emergency vehicles,
they've got their headlights on, they've got the flashing lights on.
They come across this white van, it's on the side of the road, it looks like it's been driven off the road.
Two men in hives vests, two men in uniform get out and seconds later gunfire breaks out, really intense gunfire.
Inside one of the ambulances in the rescue convoy, a paramedic says a final prayer.
His voice is trembling with fear and he recites the shahada which is what Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.
And he's also heard saying forgive me mum because I chose this way, this way of helping people.
He says the Jews are coming, the Jews are coming in a reference to the Israeli soldiers and then the video cuts out.
This is Bethan McKernan, the Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent.
She's only able to tell you this story because of the bravery of that man, paramedic Rifat Radwan.
He filmed everything Bethan has described on his mobile phone, right up to the moment he was shot by an Israeli soldier.
His body was dumped in a hastily dug grave by the side of the road, along with 14 others.
When it was exhumed almost a week later, rescuers found the phone in his pocket.