Fifteen members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Civil Defence were killed in an Israeli operation on March 23 in Rafah, southern Gaza. They were aid workers, not fighters or militants, who rushed to help those injured by bombs.
The Israeli military claimed the vehicles were unmarked and suspected of carrying militants, but this was a lie. Footage retrieved from a medic’s phone shows clearly marked ambulances and no weapons in sight before Israeli gunfire. The victims’ bodies were later found with signs of execution.
This incident is not an isolated mistake, but part of a system that dehumanises Palestinians. The Western media often reports Israel’s version first, carrying more weight than the evidence or the truth. This perpetuates a narrative that requires Palestinians to be saints to be mourned.
The author, born and raised in Gaza, knows what it means for aid workers to be killed and smeared. Dehumanisation kills, erases, and allows communities to be wiped out. It tells us that our lives, grief, and deaths are not real until verified.
The deaths of these 15 medics matter because they expose the machinery of doubt that kicks in when Palestinians are killed. The burden is placed on Palestinian families to prove their loved ones weren’t terrorists before mourning them.
Studies have found that Western media quote Israeli sources more often than Palestinian ones, failing to challenge Israeli statements rigorously. This fuels and reflects political decisions, including arms sales and silence at international forums.
The world needs to stop making Palestinians prove they are human, accepting a narrative that requires them to be saints to be mourned. These medics deserved to be believed, protected, and held accountable for their deaths. Most importantly, they deserve to be seen as human.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/4/6/israel-kills-lies-and-the-western-media-believe-it