AMY GOODMAN: For the second time since January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C., today to meet with President Trump as Israel expands its ground invasion of Gaza. According to the U.N. relief agency UNRWA, Israeli attacks have killed or injured at least 100 children in Gaza every day since Israel broke the ceasefire in mid-March.

This comes as Israel has killed at least 56 Palestinians over the past 25 hours. Overnight, Israel struck a tent housing journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The blast set off a fire that killed two people, including the journalist Helmi al-Faqawi, who was burned alive. Another journalist, Hasan Eslayeh, was seriously wounded in the attack.

Meanwhile, outrage is growing over Israel’s killing of 15 Palestinian medics and emergency workers in Gaza who were discovered in an unmarked mass grave last week. Footage recovered of the attack shows the ambulances in the convoy had their lights on when Israeli troops opened fire. Israel had initially claimed the convoy had suspiciously approached troops with their lights off. Cellphone video of Israel’s attack was recorded by a paramedic who was inside the vehicle when it came under fire, was among the 15 aid workers who were killed.

That’s the sound of gunfire from Israeli soldiers. An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that its troops, quote, “did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23,” and that, quote, “following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” they said.

Well, on Saturday, the longtime Palestinian politician and doctor Mustafa Barghouti marched in a protest in Ramallah.

DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: The Israeli army committed a terrible war crime by attacking first aid providers and medics in the Red Crescent Society while they were in their ambulances, clearly marked, with their sirens on, with their lights on. Nevertheless, they attacked them and killed them one after the other. And after killing them, and maybe some of them were still wounded, they buried them with sand, they and their ambulances. What the Israeli army did in Rafah — and that’s what The New York Times have exposed — was a terrible war crime.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the people were buried in a mass grave, with the ambulance also buried. Some of their bodies were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

This is Palestine Red Crescent Society media director Raed al-Nams addressing reporters Sunday.

RAED AL-NAMS: [translated] These are considered crimes against humanity and war crimes. The international community must intervene to stop and compel Israel to respect international conventions and the rules of international humanitarian law, which prohibit the targeting of providers of health services and ambulances during war and conflict.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Diana Buttu, longtime Palestinian human rights attorney, former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization. She has a new piece in Zeteo headlined “'Point-Blank Range': How Israel Executed 15 Medics and Rescue Workers in Gaza.”

Diana, welcome back to Democracy Now! Thanks for joining us from Haifa. If you can start off by giving us the chronology of what happened to the medics, the paramedics and the ambulance drivers, and what Israel first said, and then, when the footage was taken from the cellphone of a dead paramedic, what then Israel has responded?

DIANA BUTTU: Well, what we know, Amy, is that the Israeli army attacked an area in Rafah, a neighborhood in Rafah, Tel al-Sultan. And as has been the case over the course of the past year and a half — today marks a year and a half of this genocide — paramedics, Palestinian paramedics, went out to try to rescue people who were there, as well as to try to give them some medical services. As has been the case from the beginning, the paramedics notified and gave word that they were heading out. They had their lights on as they’ve always had their lights on. And nonetheless, what we do know is that the Israeli army then attacked the ambulances that were going there — not just attacked these ambulances, but then shot at these individuals point-blank range. Many of them were actually found with their hands and their feet bound. And several of them were found with more than 20 gunshot wounds to the head and to the chest.

To make matters then worse, we then have a group of soldiers who then decide that they’re going to bury these ambulances, and so they dug a mass grave and buried the ambulances in this mass grave. It took several days to be able to find these paramedics, because they had gone missing and nobody was able to find them, before people were then able to uncover them and the ambulances.

Now, of course, as is always the case, Israel always claims that, oops, that we didn’t do it. Then they deflect and say, “Oh, it happened to be somebody who was wanted.” And, of course, both of these are against the rules of international law. But then, only when it became clear that there was footage that the paramedics had done everything right, that we now hear that the Israelis are now claiming that they buried the ambulance — get this, Amy — in order to prevent the people from being eaten by wild animals.

In other words, what they have done time and again is be able to get away with point-blank executions, with carrying out mass — with digging up mass graves, and committing these war crimes, and all that they have to say, time and again, is “Oops, sorry,” and nobody is holding them to account.

We now have over 409 medics who have been killed by Israel over the course of the past 18 months. There have been scores who are still remaining in prison, many of them being tortured. All of these are attacks against the medical system. And this is deliberate. And it’s happening because nobody is stopping Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it’s very interesting that The Times of Israel said that the army defended burying the bodies in an unmarked grave, claiming this is “an approved and regular practice during fighting in Gaza,” and as you pointed out, to prevent the animals. But it’s a standard practice to bury people in graves. And that why the ambulances? Buried all evidence, they tried to cover up?

DIANA BUTTU: Yes, and this is the problem, Amy, is that you have to think about the levels of criminality, the level of dehumanization that it takes for not just one, but several of these soldiers to be able to think through and say, one, “We’re going to shoot at ambulances,” two, “We’re going to tie them up,” three, “We’re going to execute them,” and then, four, “We’re going to bury them, as well as the ambulances.” It’s such the height of dehumanization. And because nobody’s holding Israel to account, they continue to get away with it.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington today for a second time? He talked about he’s going to be talking about tariffs on Israel and other issues. But why, do you think?

DIANA BUTTU: I think it’s for two reasons. One is, I think he’s trying to get even more weapons to be sent to Israel. And second is, I think he really wants to cement the Trump plan, the Trump plan of ethnic cleansing, this plan that was unveiled back in January of this year. And I say this because Netanyahu has made it clear, since he broke the ceasefire on March the 18th, precisely what it is that he wants to do. He’s been saying time and again that he intends to go after all of Gaza. And he’s made it clear that he’s been doing so, but that he intends to implement the Trump plan.

And so, I think he’s looking for additional backing by this administration in order to carry out this plan. And the only way that he will be able to ethnically cleanse 2 million people from the Gaza Strip is through the use of mass weaponry and through the pressure, the diplomatic pressure, that the United States will undoubtedly bring to bear against Palestinians and, of course, against the rest of the Arab world. It’s clear what Netanyahu wants to do. The question becomes whether anybody is going to stop him.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to get your response, Diana Buttu, to what happened overnight, Israel striking a tent housing journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The video is horrifying. The blast sets up this fire, and you see a journalist, Helmi al-Faqawi, sitting in a chair burning alive as other journalists try to rescue him. Another journalist was seriously wounded in the attack. This was a tent of journalists. Your response?

DIANA BUTTU: What Israel has been trying to do is to kill anybody who’s continuing to bear witness and to bring to light Israel’s crimes. This is why we’ve now seen that this is 211 journalists that Israel has killed. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in any other place around the world. This is why they’re going after medics. This is why they’re going after the United Nations. This is why they’re going after individual civilians, as well, is that they want to make sure that they continue to carry out this genocide without anybody reporting on it.

And the fact that we haven’t seen global outrage over this mass killing of journalists and the mass killing of medics and of U.N. workers and so on just shows the height of dehumanization. It’s high time that people wake up and realize that Israel is doing this for a reason, and they continue to get away with it because nobody is stopping them.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to also ask you about what happened in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shooting dead a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy named Omar Mohammad Rabea during a raid of the town of Turmus Aya. Two other Palestinian American boys, 14 and 15, were injured. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned what it called the “extrajudicial killing.” Israel acknowledged shooting the boys. They accused them of rock throwing, Diana Buttu.

DIANA BUTTU: Yes, this is, again, another example, Amy, of the levels of dehumanization and the fact that Israeli soldiers are given orders of shoot to kill. I don’t think that we should be living in a world in which 13- and 14- and 15-year-old children are condemned to death because they’re trying to resist military occupation, threw a stone. And yet these are the instructions and the orders that the Israeli army has given to its soldiers, which is shoot and kill, and we will then provide cover for you forever. This is why we’ve never seen any Israeli soldiers be held to account for the killings of children, for the killings of journalists, for the killings of medics, and so on.

AMY GOODMAN: And then you have the situation of health officials saying 600,000 children in Gaza are at risk of permanent paralysis because Israel is barring the entry of polio vaccines to Gaza as part of its broader overall blockade. And according to UNRWA, Israeli attacks have killed or injured 100 children a day since Israel broke the ceasefire. Diana Buttu, there were protests all over the country, including those protesting around Israel’s war on Gaza and U.S. support for that war. Thousands marched in Washington in a separate protest outside the “Hands Off!” protest. And many joined the “Hands Off!” protest who felt this way. What do you think of the U.S. role and what the U.S. can do, as Netanyahu meets with Trump?

DIANA BUTTU: Look, the U.S. has been complicit, and it’s been Israel’s largest supplier. This isn’t just an Israeli genocide against Palestinians; this is a U.S.-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

And the important part of this is that If you look at who makes up the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, more than 50% are children. More than 50% are under the age of 18. And when people talk about genocide, I think the element that is largely ignored is that we’re not just talking about the number of people who are killed or the number of people who are injured. It’s about the specific intent to try to kill off a group of people. When you deny them healthcare, when you deny them the ability to have access to medicine as we’re seeing, as we’re seeing with the polio vaccine, as we’re seeing with the bombing of all 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, you can see the specific intent to commit and carry out genocide, to eliminate an entire group. And it’s now the children who are in Israel’s target. They’re the ones who are in Israel’s crosshairs, as they always have been.

The things that can be specifically done are to make sure that that weapons supply does not make it to Israel. Without U.S. weaponry, the Israeli army cannot continue its attack on Gaza to this same extent. We also have to be pushing to make sure that Israel is ostracized and that the international mechanisms are in place to make sure that people are held to account. Without this, we can just see what the next steps are going to be. And Netanyahu has made it clear: He wants to get rid of Palestinians. He’s made it clear that he wants to see ethnic cleansing, and he’s made it clear that he wants to see genocide. And it’s up to us to be doing everything to stop it.

AMY GOODMAN: So, we only have a minute, but I wanted to ask you about this last question. Netanyahu went to Hungary to meet with Orbán, and so Hungary pulled out of the International Criminal Court so it wouldn’t have to arrest him. There’s an ICC warrant for him for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Then, when Netanyahu flew from Hungary to the United States, he took a longer-than-usual flight path to avoid flying over countries, including Ireland and Iceland, that might enforce an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court if the plane had to make an emergency landing. The significance of this?

DIANA BUTTU: The significance of this is that the places in which Netanyahu is able to go are getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And it’s just a question of time before we begin to see a global alliance to make sure that this war criminal is held to account. He’s made it clear that he wants to inflict genocide. He’s made the policies of starvation clear. There’s been nothing entering Gaza since March the 2nd. And this space for him to be able to travel is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. I believe it’s just a question of time before the system catches up to him. At least I hope it is.

AMY GOODMAN: Diana Buttu, Palestinian human rights attorney, former adviser to the negotiating team of the Palestine Liberation Organization. We’ll link to your piece in Zeteo, “'Point-Blank Range': How Israel Executed 15 Medics and Rescue Workers in Gaza.”

When we come back, voices of the mass protests around the world. Over a million marched, telling President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, “Hands Off!”

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AMY GOODMAN: “Femmes du Monde,” “Women of the World,” by Amadou & Mariam in 2018 in our Democracy Now! studio. The Malian guitarist and singer Amadou Bagayoko died last week at the age of 70.