Israel Denies Palestinian Paramedic Legal Representation and Visitation Rights
Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israeli occupation authorities are denying one of the two Palestinian aid workers who survived an Israeli attack on emergency responders in Gaza last month the right to legal representation and visitation during his detention.
In a petition to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday, the family of paramedic Assad al-Nassasra sought details about the unnamed facility he is being held in.
On behalf of the paramedic’s wife, HaMoked filed an urgent petition “against the military’s refusal to disclose the whereabouts of the Gazan paramedic detained 23 March.”
HaMoked noted that the military had barred Nassasra from meeting with a lawyer until 7 May, in accordance with the amended Unlawful Combatants Law.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had previously reported Nassasra missing since 23 March, when Israeli forces shot dead 15 paramedics and emergency responders while they were on a rescue mission, before burying them underneath their crushed ambulances in a shallow grave.
Initially, the military claimed that soldiers opened fire on vehicles approaching their position in the dark without emergency lights or markings, deeming them “suspicious”.
However, video footage recovered from the mobile phone of one of the victims and released by the PRCS contradicted this account. The video showed emergency workers in uniform, operating clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks with lights on, being fired upon by soldiers.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that it had “received information that the PRCS medic Assad al-Nassasra has been detained in an Israeli place of detention”, but it did not provide information about where he was being held.
Another survivor from the attack, Munther Abed, reported that he had seen Nassasra being led away alive and blindfolded by Israeli officers following the killings.
On Sunday, the Israeli army confirmed Nassasra’s detention.
Aminah Komber, an attorney who represents the paramedic family on behalf of HaMoked, spoke to Haaretz about the petition, saying it concerns “the most fundamental right of a detainee – that his arrest and whereabouts be confirmed.
“It is also the right of the detainee’s family to know the fate of their loved one,” Komber added.
“Israeli authorities must immediately inform the family of al-Nassasra’s whereabouts. The circumstances of his arrest raise serious concerns for his well-being, and he must be granted immediate access to legal counsel.”
On Wednesday, Haaretz reported that its analysis of the military’s own materials collected as part of an internal investigation into the incident contradicted the army’s claim that soldiers did not shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian ambulances and a fire engine in the early hours of 23 March.
Instead, Haaretz said, soldiers fired continuously at the vehicles for three and a half minutes from close range despite the aid workers’ attempts to identify themselves.
More than 1,400 medical workers have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Around 360 others from the health sector remain in Israeli detention.
