Israeli army changes account of targeting and killing Gaza emergency workers

The Israeli military has provided new details and changed its initial account of the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency response workers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month, but said that investigators are still examining the evidence, Reuters has reported.

The paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on 23 March and buried in a shallow grave. Their bodies were found a week later by officials from the UN and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). Another man is still missing.

The Israelis claimed initially that soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position “suspiciously” in the dark without lights or markings. It said that they killed nine “militants” from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in PRCS vehicles.

However, video footage recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the PRCS showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly-marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.

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🇮🇱🇺🇲🇵🇸 BREAKING:
The New York Times has uncovered a deliberate war crime by the Israeli army: the targeted killing of aid workers in Gaza.

Verified footage shows Israeli forces ambushing the relief team — as soon as they stepped out of the ambulance, they were fired upon… pic.twitter.com/PVc3nULMGQ

— SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) April 6, 2025

The only known survivor of the incident, PRCS paramedic Munther Abed, also said that he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles. He was detained for several hours before being released.

An Israeli military official said late on Saturday that the investigators were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to army commanders on Sunday. He said that the initial report received from the field did not describe lights, but said investigators were looking at “operational information” and were trying to understand if this was due to an error by the person making the initial report. “What we understand currently is that the person who gives the initial account is mistaken. We’re trying to understand why.”

Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail about how the identifications were made, saying that he did not want to share classified information.

“According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over,” he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.

The UN and Palestinian Red Crescent Society have demanded an independent inquiry. Predictably, the White House said on Sunday that President Donald Trump was holding Hamas responsible for the incident.

“Hamas uses ambulances and more broadly human shields for terrorism,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. “President Trump understands the impossible situation this tactic creates for Israel and holds Hamas entirely responsible.”

Red Crescent and UN officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes.

The UN said last week that available information indicated one team was killed by Israeli forces, and other emergency and aid crews were killed one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues. “We need justice for the victims and we need to ensure that all of those who are responsible are held to account,” said PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh. “Without this, the crimes will continue to happen.”

The military official said that initial findings from the investigation showed troops had opened fire on a vehicle at around 4 am, killing two members of the “Hamas internal security forces”, and taking another prisoner, who the official said had admitted under interrogation to being in Hamas.

As time passed, several vehicles passed along the road until, at around 6 am, the official said that troops received word from aerial surveillance that a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching. “They feel that this is another incident like what happened at 4 am and they opened fire,” said the official said.

He added that aerial surveillance footage showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, and he denied reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and shot them at close range. “It’s not from close. They opened fire from afar,” he said. “There’s no mistreatment of the people there.”

The soldiers had approached the group they had shot, he claimed, identifying at least some of them as militants. He did not explain what evidence had prompted the assessment. “And in their eyes, they had an encounter with terrorists, that is a successful encounter with terrorists.”

He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered.

“There was no incident where the IDF tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately.” There was no immediate comment from UN officials.

Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to stop animals from getting at them, claimed the official. He said the vehicles were pushed out of the way by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road, but he could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.

The UN confirmed last week that it had been informed of the location of the bodies but that access to the area was denied by Israel for several days. It said the bodies had been buried alongside their crushed vehicles, clearly-marked ambulances, a fire truck and a UN car.

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