LONDON: A Palestinian civilian in Gaza carrying a white flag was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while trying to rescue family members, and the scene was captured by an ITV News cameraman.
The tragedy unfolded just minutes after the victim, identified as Ramzi Abu Sahloul, was interviewed by the British news outlet.
Abu Sahloul, who spoke English, shared his family’s constant displacement due to Israel’s war on Gaza. Having initially fled Gaza City at the war’s onset, they found themselves uprooted again, this time evacuating Khan Younis for Rafah.
They are among hundreds of thousands of people trapped between the Egyptian border and advancing Israeli Defense Forces.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” he told a cameraman working for ITV News.
“Everywhere you find the Israeli Army. They shoot at us at home, in any building and in the street.”
Speaking on camera, Abu Sahloul said that they were trying to reach his mother and brother to get to them to safety.
The interview was over, and the cameraman walked away. He then turned to take one last shot of the group of five men when there was a sudden, loud sound of shots.
The cameraman filmed the group standing still with their hands raised, one of whom was holding a white flag.
The five began to run, but Abu Sahloul collapsed to the ground within seconds. He had been shot in the chest. One of the men placed the flag over his wounds. They lifted him between them, and the white flag is seen turning red.
The 51-year-old husband and father was motionless, and it appears that he died almost instantly.
As they tried to carry him to safety, there was the sound of more gunfire and the whoosh of a bullet passing nearby suggested that the group was still being targeted.
Eventually, they moved the body to a safer location, where his widow began to cry and mourn her loss.
Abu Sahloul sold children’s clothes for a living.
In response to an inquiry from ITV News, the IDF denied the existence of “field executions.”
