3 hours Ago By David Bonior
One day, near the end of my father’s life, he uncharacteristically shared with me a war story that clearly had burdened him throughout his years.Ed Bonior was a medic in the U.S.
Army from 1944-45. He was a decorated first responder for those wounded in battles, working in the war fields of mostly France and Germany as well as the 129th Evacuation Hospital Unit to which he was attached.His first encounter with war occurred soon after crossing the Atlantic and arriving in France near LeHavre.
He was then immediately ordered to the railroad station, as a bomb had been detonated and there were many casualties. At the station he and his neophyte medical team began to aid the wounded and dying.My father rushed over to the tracks where he found a U.
S. combatant. He kneeled beside the soldier cradling him in the crook of his arm.
That is when he discovered that a third of the soldier’s head was gone. My father’s white insignia medic arm band turned red from the fatal wounds. It was here that he was introduced to war, and from where he went on to help save many lives and be awarded two bronze stars.
I was reminded of dad’s story this past month as I read of the horrific slaughter by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of 15 medical responders in Southern Gaza near Rafah in March 2025.The killingsExcellent reporting by The Guardian and the New York Times recounts the events of the brutal killings.On March 18 Israel ended its two-month-old ceasefire and resumed its military campaign against Hamas with heavy aerial bombings and ground operations.
On that day, Israel killed 400 Palestinians in Gaza, including many innocent women and children.At 4 a.m.
on March 23, a Red Crescent ambulance made its way to collect people injured by Israeli airstrikes. The ambulance came under Israeli fire and two paramedics were killed near the town of Hashashin. A few hours later, a convoy including ambulances, a fire truck, health ministry vehicles and a UN car was dispatched to recover the bodies of the two paramedics.
The next day there was no word from the now-missing convoy. The IDF had blocked access to the site where all the carnage occurred.Three days later, on March 26 the United Nations got involved, sending its own convoy that after initially being blocked from the site was then able the next day to see it.
The U.N. team from the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reported the ambulances, fire truck, and UN vehicle were all crushed and partially burned.
But because of the unsafe nature of the site, the U.N. Ocha team withdrew.
On March 30 Ocha and Red Crescent workers returned to the site and found a mass grave with the bodies of eight Red Crescent workers, five other civil defense responders, and one U.N. staff member.
In a video at the scene, Jonathan Whittall, the head of Ocha in Palestine, says the dead were shot “one by one” then buried in the mass grave. The dead were found buried by their wrecked and well-marked vehicles. Tom Fletcher, the head of Ocha, reported: “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives.
We demand answers and justice.”The Israeli defenseThe Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) initially argued its soldiers had opened fire on the vehicles because they were “advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals.” They also alleged Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were among those killed.
But none were reported to be in the mass grave.The rebuttalThe next day two witnesses told Guardian reporters “some of the bodies recovered from the grave had their hands and feet tied, suggesting they were shot after being detained.” The following day a forensic consultant who examined five of the bodies said there was evidence of execution-style killings in some cases based on the “specific and intentional” location of shots taken at close range.
It was later established that before he was killed one of the paramedics recorded on his cellphone a seven-minute video. The video showed that the ambulances and fire truck in which they were traveling were clearly marked and had their emergency signal lights on when Israeli troops hit them with a barrage of gunfire. This contradicts the Israeli assertions that they were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights and emergency signals.
The lawThe Geneva Convention and other acts of international law are specific about the protection afforded medical and humanitarian workers in war zones. It is a war crime to kill them.The paramedic filmed is heard on the video repeating, over and over, the “shahada,” or a Muslim declaration of faith, which people recite when facing death.
“There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger,” the paramedic is recorded saying. He asks God for forgiveness and says he knows that he is going to die.“Forgive me mother.
This is the path I chose— to help people,” he said. “Allahu Akbar,” God is great.David Bonior represented Macomb County and Michigan in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 2003.
He served as Democratic whip from 1991 to 2002..
