[gunfire] “We are learning more about a young Palestinian nurse killed on Friday while —” “A young medic’s final moment: Rouzan al-Najjar races to help an injured Palestinian protester.” On June 1, 2018, an Israeli soldier shot into a crowd of protesters in Gaza, killing a volunteer medic named Rouzan al-Najjar. “There has been a huge reaction across Gaza to the death —” Her death sparked outrage and grabbed the world’s attention. “She is the latest victim of Israeli gunfire.” “The U.N. and human rights groups have accused Israel of using disproportionate force.” Israel says it uses live fire only as a last resort. “We have a very specific record of every shot.” “Israel only targeted people who were actively engaged in violence.” “And we only use live fire in a measured and surgical way.” But what about Rouzan? Israel’s army said it would investigate her death, but they offered us little explanation. “We don’t know exactly how and what happened. The adverse results are clear.” We’d met and interviewed Rouzan weeks before she was killed. We returned to Gaza to investigate her death and found that virtually every minute of the day she died was filmed by journalists, medics and protesters. We analyzed over 1,000 of their photos and videos, frame by frame. We mapped the protest area. And with the agency Forensic Architecture, we made a precise 3-D model of it. We studied ballistics evidence and autopsy records. And our reporters reviewed the visual evidence with more than 30 key witnesses. Our investigation reconstructs what happened that day. It reveals how Rouzan was killed, and shows how Israel used lethal force to control the protests, often in a way that has led to tragic consequences. Rouzan was already somewhat of a local celebrity by the time we met her in May. “Rouzan al-Najjar.” She was known for being the first woman to volunteer as a medic when protests began. By volunteering, Rouzan broke Gaza’s rigid gender norms. She wasn’t a doctor or a nurse. She told us she just wanted to help the wounded. Gazans had been coming to the boundary line with Israel since March. They wanted to protest the blockade imposed by Israel since Hamas seized power in Gaza 11 years ago. [chanting] Thousands came in peace — to highlight their grinding poverty and isolation. But Hamas — which calls for Israel’s destruction — saw a chance to ride the wave of anger. They backed the protests, and urged participants to break through the border fence. [chanting] Some protesters threw stones, or flew burning kites into Israel. Others cut openings in the fence, one that was built only to detect intrusion, not stop it. To Israel, breaching the fence amounted to an imminent threat to rural communities a few hundred yards from the Gaza side. “I can only, you know, use what they publish here. And you can see here, Nahal Oz. This is Gaza. Nahal Oz is 700 meters.” Taking no chances, Israel warned that its army would use lethal force against anyone who approached the fence, and it did. On the worst day of violence in May, it shot over 1,000 people. “I don’t know of any army that would do anything differently if you had to protect your border against people who say, ‘We’re going to destroy you.’” But its soldiers also shot even after violence had passed, and toward nonviolent protesters and bystanders who were far from the fence. [gunfire] And that’s what happened on the day Rouzan was killed. We’ll take you through her final hour. But first, we’ll map out the area around the fence, because the position of soldiers and protesters that day is key to understanding what follows. This is the fence that separates Israel and Gaza. On the Israeli side, snipers in jeeps are positioned here. Around 40 yards into the Gaza side are long coils of barbed wire. And for most of the afternoon, protesters and onlookers are here, about 100 yards back. And what keeps the protesters back there, and away from the fence, is tear gas. As protesters approach the fence throwing stones, the Israel Defense Forces, the I.D.F., repels them with gas. [shouting] It’s a scene that replays over and over, and it keeps Rouzan and the other medics busy. As a means to keep back protesters, tear gas is working. But in the 15 minutes before Rouzan is killed, the protesters move closer toward the fence. There are three separate incidents by the barbed wire, and the I.D.F. begins to fire live rounds. The first incident happens here, and it draws the medics in. Two protesters are injured on the ground, and Rouzan leads the medics to rescue them. She waves at soldiers not to shoot. Medics are protected by international law, but the I.D.F. fires a warning shot near them. The medics see a soldier emerge from behind a jeep, his rifle leveled at them. Rouzan is the last to pull back. This is the first time that medics are taken out by gas that afternoon. Back among the protest crowd, Rouzan catches her breath. But the violence around her intensifies. The second incident happens far upfield, about 200 yards from the main protest area. A group of protesters splits off and digs in at the barbed wire. The I.D.F. is caught off guard. They race up in jeeps. The protesters throw stones and firebombs. The I.D.F. responds again with a barrage of gas, pushing many of the protesters back. The I.D.F. told us firebombs escalated matters. After they’re thrown, snipers get ready atop this berm, near where the medics and soldiers were face to face moments earlier. We’ll come back to these berms, shortly. The third incident happens here, to the other side of the medics and protesters. Protesters attach a hook to the barbed wire and start pulling a segment away. Lamiaa, a medic who was standing with Rouzan, senses danger. Again, the I.D.F. launches gas. The rope pullers tug away a small coil of wire and run off. Much of the crowd follows along. By now, Rouzan and Lamiaa are walking back through the crowd, far from the fence. We spot them in this blurry Facebook Live video. For a moment, the violent protesting seems to be dissipating. [gunfire] It’s 6:31, the fatal shot. Three medics fall — Mohammed, Rami and Rouzan. Doctors in a nearby field clinic fail to resuscitate her. She’s rushed to a hospital, but it’s too late. At 7:10, Rouzan is pronounced dead. How did Rouzan die that day? We’ll freeze that fatal moment in time. Here’s the shot. In the distance are the three medics who are hit. Here’s Rami, holding his thigh. There’s Mohammed. And here, to the left, is Rouzan, partially obscured. She’s actually one of eight medics in this particular frame. We worked with the research agency Forensic Architecture to create a 3-D model of the protest field from multiple cameras. Here are the medics in white, and Rouzan in orange. Where did the shot come from? We drew a line through Rouzan and Rami, the two medics who were directly hit by the bullet. Allowing for a margin of error, we traced the bullet back to the same sand berms where the medics stood opposite Israeli soldiers minutes earlier. How did one bullet hit two medics and injure a third? The snipers are aiming almost parallel to the ground and firing a large battlefield bullet. Former snipers told us that a hefty round like this could easily skim like a stone off the rocky soil, endangering everyone in its path — and that appears to be what happened. Here’s another angle — [gunfire] the shot. [shouting] There’s Rami and Mohammed, with only his legs visible. Let’s rewind. [gunfire] Notice, two people point. They told us they saw where the bullet hit the ground, just a few feet from the medics. The bullet continued onward . Here’s Rami. The bullet grazed his thigh. There’s Mohammed. The bullet sprayed his torso with debris, including the copper jacket of the bullet. And that’s Rouzan. The bullet pierced her chest and severed her aorta. Two fragments came out through her medic’s vest. We asked Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus how the I.D.F. decides to shoot live rounds. “It would be a very precise identification of a target where the sniper asks for permission. The officer would grant that permission and then the sniper would execute that order.” “But that, that target has to have been — himself or herself — has to have been doing something violent that poses a threat?” “Yes. Whenever there was a situation where we would have rioters cutting the fence, throwing grenades and being able to breach inside, those were the situations where we took action against.” A senior I.D.F. commander told us that soldiers shot four protesters that day. All of them, he said, were acting violently. We found the first and third targets in the group that broke upfield. The first fell around 50 or 60 yards from the fence. We saw the third target throwing stones a few minutes before he was shot. The fourth target appears to have been alone when he was shot, around 150 yards from the fence. We don’t know what he was doing. What about the second shot — the one that killed Rouzan? Who was acting violently at that time? We analyzed videos taken from several angles before the fatal shot, frame by frame. We focus in on the space between the medics and the soldiers at the fence, and we don’t see a single protester or violent threat within 100 yards of the fence. Remember, the I.D.F. says it uses live fire only as a last resort. So why take that shot? We know it was fired at 6:31 p.m. Right before this video clip. The senior I.D.F. commander told us that at that time, they shot a protester in a yellow shirt who was pulling at the fence and throwing stones. We reviewed multiple videos and found a few men wearing yellow shirts, but only one near the bullet’s path. The man in yellow wasn’t acting violently in the minutes before the shot, and he couldn’t have been an imminent threat. He’s too far from the fence. He also wasn’t shot. And most importantly, behind him were the medics in white coats. “Really, the question is, even if you had a legitimate target with medics right behind, why would you take that shot?” “It’s very difficult to say. Very difficult to say. I mean, I think it’s —” “I mean, isn’t it reckless?” “No, I wouldn’t say so.” But the soldier fired through a group of medics. We talked to a ballistics expert, and former I.D.F. and U.S. army snipers. They told us it’s a shot you don’t take. In public, Israel says it uses lethal force as a last resort against imminent threats to Israeli life. But at the border fence, we found it took a more permissive approach. It treated the crowd of protesters itself as an imminent threat and allowed soldiers to shoot pre-emptively at targets within it to prevent a breach. That often meant putting nonviolent protesters, bystanders and medics at risk. [shouting] According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli soldiers have shot over 6,000 Palestinians in the protests of 2018. In Gaza, we saw many with life-changing injuries. More than 180 have been killed. They include a journalist who was filming the protests, a 15-year-old shot in the chest, a 16-year-old who had his arms raised and a young man shot in the back while carrying a tire. And off-camera in August, a senior Israeli commander told us that by then, 60 to 70 Palestinians were killed unintentionally. Israel has opened criminal investigations into three cases, including Rouzan’s. But it’s done nothing to adjust its policy on the use of lethal force. For now, Israel says that protecting its border is a complicated business. “Unfortunately, yes, in a situation like that, accidents happen, and unintended results happen.”