An Israeli soldier deliberately shot and killed a Palestinian boy who was scheduled to testify about a March massacre in which Israeli forces ambushed and killed 15 first responders and aid workers in the Gaza Strip, an act considered a war crime by international humanitarian law.
Mohammed Bardawil, 12, was one of four surviving witnesses who watched Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers open fire on 15 paramedics, rescue workers, and UN staff in the city of Rafah on March 23. The young boy and his father, Saeed Bardawil, were abducted by Israeli officer Major Nikolai Ashurov, the commander who ordered the killings, and his unit after they slaughtered the first responders.
The IDF soldiers then forced the boy and his father to help them evacuate Tal al-Sultan, a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials attempted to use the Bardawils' survival as "proof" Palestinians were not deliberately targeted during the massacre, but they failed to specify that they were spared for the operation, Drop Site News reported on X.
BREAKING: A Palestinian paramedic, later found in a mass grave with 14 other Aid Workers, filmed their final moments in Rafah as Israeli fire hit clearly marked ambulances with emergency lights on (March 23)
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) April 5, 2025
The footage, verified by The New York Times, disproves Israel’s claims pic.twitter.com/udsPtCkjbF
Mohammed had previously spoken with the New York Times and had testified that he watched IDF soldiers kill the paramedics at point-blank range "from one meter away." He was scheduled for a second testimony with investigators and pediatric psychologists before he was fatally shot.
"Israeli military shot and killed 12 yo Mohammed Bardawil, a key eyewitness in our paramedic massacre investigation," Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi posted on X Tuesday.
"Mohammed was the sole surviving witness to the presence of Major Nikolai Ashurov & Israeli tanks during the execution of UN staff member Mr Shatout," he continued.
Breaking News
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) May 13, 2025
Israeli military shot and killed 12 yo Mohammed Bardawil, a key eyewitness in our paramedic massacre investigation.
Mohammed was the sole surviving witness to the presence of Major Nikolai Ashurov & Israeli tanks during the execution of UN staff member Mr Shatout https://t.co/AaqU66ug5k pic.twitter.com/sF34tDDUmp
The bodies of the medical volunteers were recovered from a mass grave, stacked atop one another, on March 30, a week after the massacre, as Israeli forces blocked entry into the area. Israeli officials initially denied targeting aid workers, but a video from a slain volunteer later surfaced, showing ambulance lights flashing as they attempted to rescue Palestinians wounded in a strike and exposing the falsehood.
Israeli forces also kidnapped Assaad al-Nassasra, an ambulance driver and volunteer with Palestine Red Crescent Society, the day of the massacre. He was released in poor health on April 29 after 37 days in captivity.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's largest humanitarian network, condemned the attacks, which they declared the "single most deadly" for its workers in nearly a decade.
Israel attributed the massacre to "professional failures," claiming no breach of its military code of ethics, yet dismissed a soldier from the unit involved.
As of April 7, the IDF had killed at least 408 aid workers in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, including 284 United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 34 PRCS staff members, according to the United Nations.
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