Film shows Gaza medic in different light

Video portrays woman killed by Israeli forces as tool of Hamas

The Israeli military published a brief video Thursday aimed at showing that a Palestinian medic killed by Israeli forces last week was not the neutral health care worker she has been portrayed as.

The tightly edited video shows a woman identified as the medic, Rouzan al-Najjar, throwing what appears to be a tear-gas canister. The video does not appear to have been taken the day Najjar was killed, and the canister does not appear to be aimed at anyone.

In a second scene, according to the video, Najjar tells an interviewer, “I am here on the front line and I act as a human shield.”

Since she was killed at a protest at the Gaza-Israel border fence on June 1, Najjar, who was 20, has become a powerful symbol of the conflict there. Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has portrayed her as a hero and an innocent victim of Israeli aggression.

Israel has been assailed by human rights groups for using excessive force against the protesters, most of whom were unarmed. Since the weekly protests began in March, according to Gaza health officials, 119 people have been killed by Israeli fire.

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted June 1 to censure Israel for disproportionate use of force. On Saturday, a group of U.N. agencies called the killing of Najjar, a “clearly identified” medic, “particularly reprehensible.”

The Israeli Army has said that it has used live ammunition only as a last resort in an effort to prevent the protesters, and any fighters blended in their ranks, from breaching the fence and attacking Israelis on the other side.

In its first substantive statement on Najjar’s death, the military said Tuesday that it had been unintentional and that the military was still investigating it.

The video Israel released Thursday did not try to make the case that Najjar’s actions provided a justification for her shooting. Rather the clip, published in English and Arabic, appeared to be part of the battle over her story’s narrative and an effort to chip away at Najjar’s image of fresh-faced innocence.

“This medic was incited by Hamas to give up her life for their goals,” the text on the English-language version of the video says. “Hamas uses paramedics as human shields.”

The protests are aimed at ending the 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt, and pressing Palestinian claims to lands in what is now Israel.

The Israeli video appears to be an excerpt from a longer video produced by Al Mayadeen News, an Arabic satellite channel based in Beirut, Lebanon.

The Mayadeen interview suggests that Najjar may have been a more complex person than either side is making her out to be.

While she said she saw her role as a health care worker, she also saw herself as part of the protest.

“I will save all the injured so that they can go back and defend their land, and take back our land,” she said.