The ambulance pulls up on a narrow street at the Balata Palestinian refugee camp in Nablus in the West Bank, seemingly no different from one of the many emergency vehicles that drive in the area every day. But then five armed Israeli soldiers emerge from the vehicle, going on to take part in a raid that results in the death of two civilians, including an 80-year-old woman, in an incident that Israel’s army admitted constituted “a serious offence … [and] violation of existing orders and procedures”.
The Guardian has reviewed video captured by a surveillance camera, spoken with witnesses and a survivor of the military operation, conducted by the IDF on 19 December 2024 using a hospital vehicle with Palestinian licence plates. It was described by rights groups as a “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law, which prohibits the use of medical vehicles to carry out military attacks that result in injury or death of people.
