Killing of aid workers by Israeli soldiers deserves 'universal condemnation': Shanmugam
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Apr 8), Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam addressed the incident, which he described as "Israeli soldiers kill(ing) emergency workers in cold blood".
This frame grab from a video released by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, taken with a phone by one of the 15 Palestinians medics killed, shows Red Crescent emergency vehicles, their lights and sirens flashing and their logos clearly visible, seconds before they came under a barrage of gunfire from Israeli army soldiers in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Mar 23, 2025. (Palestinian Red Crescent Society via AP)
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
SINGAPORE: Law and Home Affairs minister K Shanmugam has condemned what he described as the "cold-blood(ed)" killing of Gaza medics by Israeli soldiers, calling for the "universal condemnation" of their actions.
In a post on Facebook on Tuesday (Apr 8), Mr Shanmugam cited video evidence that contradicted Israel's initial claim that its soldiers opened fire on a convoy of emergency vehicles on Mar 23 because the vehicles had approached "suspiciously ... without headlights or emergency signals".
"The Israeli Army lied about it," wrote Mr Shanmugam. "The Army now admits it was wrong in its account."Â
He criticised the Israeli military not just for the killings, but for what he called an attempt to "cover up the soldiers' illegal actions".
"Massacres, lies. Soldiers may do wrong. But the Army as an institution has a higher duty to do the right thing," he wrote.
WHAT HAPPPENEDÂ
The bodies of the 15 emergency workers - from the Red Cross, Red Crescent, United Nations and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service - were found a week later by officials from the UN and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.
On Apr 5, the Israeli military provided new details that changed its initial account of the shooting in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but said investigators were still examining the evidence.
The military said troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of a militant group but did not provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made.
According to the Israel Defense Force on Tuesday, a preliminary inquiry indicated that troops "opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area".
"All the claims raised regarding the incident will be examined through the mechanism and presented in a detailed and thorough manner for a decision on how to handle the event," it added.
Mr Shanmugam noted that Israel might point to Hamas' tactics to justify its military actions. But he questioned whether such comparisons could hold.
“Is that even an excuse for a State that says its values are based on Rule of Law?” he wrote.
"These actions deserve universal condemnation."
