DUBAI: A British TV news crew appeared to capture the moment a Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man in Gaza on Tuesday as he tried to reach family members trapped inside a house in an active combat zone while clearly displaying a white flag.
Only moments after speaking to a reporter from British broadcaster ITV, footage shot by the crew shows the man and four others walking slowly up a street in an attempt to reach the house in Khan Younis where his family was stranded. They are seen waving a white flag and holding their hands in the air. Then shots ring out.
ITV foreign correspondent John Irvine said the men were “doing their utmost to appear non-threatening” to Israeli soldiers deployed nearby and were “trying to proceed with care.”
Minutes earlier, the man, identified as Ramzi Abu Sahloul, told the ITV crew: “The Israelis came to us and told us to evacuate but they didn’t let my brother out. We want to go and try to get them, God willing.”
Moment innocent civilian brandishing white flag in Gaza 'safe zone' is shot dead in the street | @johnirvineitv reportshttps://t.co/eHNBbDXHm2 pic.twitter.com/R0ictqZP5T
— ITV News (@itvnews) January 24, 2024
ITV said the cameraman had “turned to get one last picture of the group” when gunfire rang out. The footage shows the group of men ducking and moving back as the shots are heard, then gathering around one of their number who has fallen to the ground. ITV said it was the man their crew had spoken to and he died.
Representatives of the Israeli military said they were unaware of the incident and the video was “clearly edited.”
The army told ITV: “It is imperative to emphasize that the alarming, libelous and gross mischaracterization of the war with these despicable accusations can only be deemed as an extension of Hamas’ propaganda effort to defame the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and undermine our objective to dismantle Hamas and ensure the terrorist entity never again holds the power to build a terrorist army, invade Israel, murder, burn, rape and abduct Israelis.”
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the British Parliament, Stephen Flynn, an MP for the Scottish National Party, said that “shooting an unarmed man under a white flag is a war crime,” and urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to lobby for a ceasefire in Gaza.
"Shooting an unarmed man under a white flag is a war crime"
SNP's Stephen Flynn challenges Rishi Sunak on calls for a ceasefire
PM says he will continue to press allies to reach an humanitarian pause to get more aid into Gaza
#PMQs https://t.co/EPgfYD9zIB pic.twitter.com/qSchb6EMhY— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 24, 2024
Human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield also described the footage as evidence of a war crime.
“This group of five people are unarmed, they didn’t have weapons of any kind, they are waving a white flag, they do not present a threat, so to shoot them without warning, just like that, it is an execution,” he told ITV News.
The death toll among Palestinians in Gaza surpassed 25,000 on Sunday, according to the Health Ministry in the territory. More than 62,000 reportedly have been wounded since the current conflict began.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that his country will not stop fighting in Gaza until “absolute victory” is achieved. His comment came the day after Israel suffered its highest single-day death toll in the territory, when 24 soldiers were killed.
