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Scene. file? Published by IMEMC News

UN teams rescue the bodies of aid workers killed by the IDF, earlier this week. Credit: Jonathan Whittall/X. Published by Haaretz

March 23 satellite image showing location of detained medical workers and ambulances. Published by IMEMC News

Civil Defense victim Anwar al-Attar. Published by IMEMC News

Gazan medics killed by the IDF, at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on Monday. Credit: Hatem Khaled/Reuters. Published by Haaretz

Bodies of three Gazan rescue workers in late March, found in a mass grave. Credit: AFP/ Published by Haaretz
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Video of Killing of Gaza Aid Workers Shows Ambulance Lights Were On, Despite IDF Claims

After 15 Palestinian rescue workers were found in a mass grave, a video obtained by The New York Times shows Gazan ambulances with their emergency lights on under intense gunfire. The IDF claimed that several vehicles had approached the soldiers 'suspiciously' without emergency signals

by Haaretz
April 5, 2025

A video obtained by the New York Times, found on the mobile phone of a paramedic whose body was discovered in a mass grave alongside 15 aid workers killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza on March 23, shows that, contrary to Israel's claims, the ambulances and fire trucks carrying the workers were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on when Israeli forces fired at them

An IDF spokesman had previously said that Israeli forces did not "randomly attack" an ambulance and that some vehicles "were identified as moving suspiciously" without lights or emergency signals towards the soldiers – who then fired in response.

The video was provided by a senior UN diplomat who requested anonymity and had a verified location and timestamp, The New York Times said.

In late March, the bodies of 15 rescue workers were found in a mass grave. Contact had been lost with multiple teams who went to the site one after the other. One rescuer on site told Haaretz that one was found with his legs bound, and Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said that other workers were found with their hands tied.

The nearly seven-minute recording had been presented by the Red Cross to the UN Security Council on Friday, The Times said. The Red Cross told The Times that the paramedic whose phone contained the video had been shot in the head but did not disclose his name.

In the video, at least two rescue workers can be seen wearing uniforms, and the ambulance is marked with the emblem of the Red Crescent. After rescue workers exited the vehicles, intense gunfire can be heard for five minutes. A man says in Arabic that there are Israelis present.

Upon the release of the video, the IDF issued a new statement on Saturday, denying claims that the 15 aid workers were "executed" or tied up. It also said that the ambulances passed through an ambush planned by the forces and that they killed one member of the Hamas police and wounded two more, though it has yet to provide evidence to prove those claims.

The statement added that the workers descended from the vehicles quickly, which raised the suspicion of the soldiers who opened fire, killing all 15 workers from a distance. The IDF repeated claims it has said in the past that Hamas uses ambulances and emergency vehicles to move around the Gaza Strip.

However, during the video obtained by the New York Times, the shots can be heard approaching closer, and at some point, the voices of the IDF soldiers can also be heard. The body of the paramedic filming the video was later found with a bullet wound in the head.

Regarding the burial of the bodies and the vehicles in the sad, the IDF said this is common practice, meant to prevent animals from approaching the bodies. The vehicles, according to the IDF statement, were not buried but moved after two days to clear the route. The IDF also denies the claims that they mutilated the bodies. The video released by the UN shows the bodies in very bad condition; some of them looked as if they were dismembered.

The UN said that the IDF prohibited its workers from approaching the site for five days. The IDF said that there was an attempt to coordinate the UN workers arrival, but the bodies could not be found and it took several more days.

The IDF's statement added that it is possible that only one of the vehicles drove without its lights on and that they will check internally why a false report was passed on to the media. The IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered that the incident be investigated internally by the body that is deployed when there are suspicions of war crimes. To this day, there have been dozens of incidents sent to this internal body, with no known reprimands or punishment issued against IDF soldiers.

Munther Abed, a 27-year-old Red Crescent volunteer, told The Guardian that he was in the first ambulance to arrive at the site of the Israeli airstrike. He said he had been volunteering that morning at a hospital in the al-Mawasi area on the coast, and that the call to respond to the attack came shortly after dawn.

About 20 minutes later, Abed and two other crew members arrived and immediately came under heavy fire on their vehicle. "The door opened, and there they were – Israeli special forces in military uniforms, armed with rifles, green lasers and night-vision goggles," Abed told the Guardian. "They dragged me out of the ambulance, keeping me face down to avoid seeing what had happened to my colleagues." They then stripped him and bound his hands behind his back, Abed says.

"They threw me on the ground, and the interrogation began. I endured severe torture, including beatings, insults, death threats, and choking, and one soldier pressed his rifle to my neck," Abed said. "AAnother soldier held a dagger to my left shoulder. After a while, an officer arrived and ordered the soldiers to stop, calling them 'crazy people' who didn't know how to communicate."

Despite being thrown to the ground, Abed managed to see what was happening: heavy fire was directed at every additional aid vehicle that arrived.

"During this time, I noticed a civil defence vehicle [a rescue organization belonging to the Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip] and another ambulance approaching. As they neared, both were met with intense gunfire from the Israeli forces that lasted for about five minutes," he said. "I could only see the red lights of the ambulances and hear the sound of gunfire." According to him, in the minutes that followed, three more ambulances arrived, and Israeli forces also fired at them.

As the sun began to rise, he said, he was able to see the surroundings more clearly. "Tanks, quadcopters and drones came. The area was completely surrounded, and a large Israeli bulldozer and excavator arrived. They began digging a massive hole and threw the ambulances and civil defence vehicle into it, burying them and covering the hole."

According to a source who participated in the body recovery and spoke with Haaretz, the IDF marked the location where the vehicles were buried and where the bodies were interred – and also told the recovery teams to bring digging tools with them to the site.

Abed denied the army's version that the ambulance lights were off. "The ambulance's lights were clearly on, and the Red Crescent logo was visible as we headed to the scene," he said. The IDF described the area as a military zone, but Abed claimed that the area in question, Tel al-Sultan neighborhood – Hashashin – was "a civilian area where daily life had been going on as usual, not a designated combat zone."

The army also claimed to have killed nine Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the incident, but no additional bodies were found in the mass grave. Abed insists that no militants were traveling with them in the ambulances.

Abed was held by the army for hours, during which he recounts being completely stripped, beaten, and interrogated about his past. Later, he said, he was forced to assist in interrogating and photographing local residents, who were ordered to leave the area and relocate to al-Mawasi.

Some of the women were carrying their children who had been killed. One mother carried her child, who had been shot in the chest and killed. Another mother carried her daughter, who had also been shot in the chest. Another girl carried their sister, who had been shot in the foot." Abed said that the women were allowed to pass, but the men were not.

"I began directing the men, bringing five at a time to stand in front of the camera," Abed explained. "Some of them passed without incident, but others were taken, dressed in white, and placed in a large hole. I still don't know what happened to them."

Abed was released only in the evening. He said that his watch and underwear were returned, but not his ID card, paramedic uniform, or shoes. He was told to walk toward al-Mawasi, but eventually managed to flag down a passing Red Crescent vehicle and get a ride. According to him, he is still suffering from the pain of the beatings he endured, and his mental state is "shattered."

Abed has volunteered with the Red Crescent since he was 18, but began working with the ambulance teams only at the start of the war. "We entered this field out of love, despite the dangers that surround it and the risk we face during missions," he said.

"We no longer find it surprising when someone is killed," Abed said. "Anyone can be targeted as we are dealing with an occupying force that disregards international laws and treaties," he added. "Every mission we go on feels like it might be the last."

At a press conference at the UN headquarters on Friday, Palestine Red Crescent Society said that the evidence they collected, including the video and forensic evidence, contradicted the IDF version of events.

Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, the president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and his deputy, Marwan Jilani, told reporters that "Their bodies have been targeted from a very close range." Khatib added that Israel did not provide information on the missing medics' whereabouts for days. "They knew exactly where they were because they killed them," he said.

According to the bodies' recovery teams, an IDF engineering vehicle buried the bodies along with the vehicles they were traveling in under two large piles of sand, with a rotating emergency light from one of the rescue vehicles placed atop one of the mounds.

According to the IDF, the soldiers fired at the vehicles, killing Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, including a member of Hamas's military wing – Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki.

According to a statement from the Red Crescent organization, the Red Crescent victims are "Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer and Ezzedine Shaath and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al Sharif and Rifatt Radwan."

The fate of the Red Crescent volunteer Asad Al-Nasrah remains unknown, but Abed said he saw him alive, detained by the soldiers. Al-Nasrah has not been seen since.
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UN Recovers 15 Aid Workers' Bodies in Gaza, Say Some Found Bound and Shot

Rescue teams say some victims had their hands tied and were shot at close range, suggesting they were executed. The IDF claims some of those killed were militants and says the vehicles were moving 'suspiciously'

by Nir Hasson, Liza Rozovsky, and Jack Khoury by Haaretz
Apr 1, 2025

UN teams and rescue services in the Gaza Strip recovered earlier this week the bodies of 15 humanitarian aid workers who were killed by Israel Defense Forces fire in the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp in Rafah last week.

According to the rescue teams, an IDF engineering vehicle buried the bodies along with the vehicles they were traveling in under two large piles of sand, with a rotating emergency light from one of the rescue vehicles placed atop one of the mounds.

Members of the rescue team say an IDF official directed them to the exact location where the bodies were buried and instructed them to bring digging tools. UN teams received approval to recover the bodies five days after submitting their request.

One rescuer on site told Haaretz that one of the bodies was found with its legs bound, reinforcing suspicions that some of the aid workers may have been executed. On Sunday, Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said that some of the workers were found with their hands tied.

Dr. Bashar Murad, the head of health programs for the Red Crescent in Gaza, told The Guardian on Monday that the autopsy of the bodies clearly showed that the rescue workers were shot in the upper parts of their bodies and were then put into a pit, one on top of another.

Murad added that one of the paramedics in the convoy was on the phone with other rescue workers at the ambulance station during the attack.

"He informed us that he was wounded and requested assistance, and that another person was also wounded," Murad said. A few minutes later, he added, the rescue team heard Israeli soldiers arriving, speaking in Hebrew. The troops talked about gathering the rescue workers and using restraints to tie them. According to Murad, this indicates that at least some of the rescue team members were still alive at that point.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defense, said in an interview with Radio Al-Shams that some of the victims were executed outside their vehicles.
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9 Palestinian Medics Killed By Israel, Their Bodies Covered Up

by IMEMC News
March 28, 2025

According to a report Thursday by Quds News, Israeli forces executed nine missing Palestinian medics from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense in Rafah, buried them, and destroyed their ambulances, the Palestinian Civil Defense confirmed on Thursday.

On March 22nd, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that the Israeli army surrounded several of its ambulances while they were operating in the Al-Hashashin area of the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which was targeted by Israeli bombardment.

Several paramedics were injured, and contact was lost with the trapped team of medical professionals, who remained surrounded by the Israeli military as soldiers cleared the surrounding area and prevented anyone from reaching the ambulances.

The Palestinian Red Crescent had reported the medics missing for days, expressing deep concern for its teams’ safety and holding Israel fully responsible. The Gaza media office stated that the Israeli forces abducted 15 paramedics and civil defense workers. It called for urgent international intervention to allow rescue crews into Tel Sultan to locate the missing medics. However, all efforts by international organizations failed due to Israeli restrictions.

Their fate remained unknown until rescue teams, coordinated with the Red Cross, were able to enter the area on Thursday. They discovered that Israeli troops had executed the missing medics and buried them near the military barracks. The soldiers also destroyed all Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defense ambulances at the site.

Red Crescent victims: Ezz Al-Din Shaath, Mustafa Khafaja, Saleh Ma’mar, Mohammed Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Labda, Mohammed Al-Hayla, Rifat Radwan, Asaad Al-Nasasra, Raed Al-Sharif

Civil Defense victims: Fouad Al-Jamal, Youssef Khalifa, Anwar Al-Attar, Zuhair Al-Farra, Sameer Al-Bahabsa, Ibrahim Al-Maghari

The body of Civil Defense head Anwar Al-Attar was recovered and transferred to Nasser Hospital. Search efforts for the remaining missing continue.

The discovery of the assassinated medics came nine days into Israel’s renewed assault on the entire Gaza Strip, which came unexpectedly on March 18th, after just 38 days of ceasefire, when the Israeli army carried out a sudden air operation in Gaza, killing over 500 people, injuring nearly 1,900 others, and destroying the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that was in place since January.

At least 400 aid workers, including teachers, doctors and nurses, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, OCHA said in an update earlier this week. The death toll includes 289 UN staff and 34 Palestinian Red Crescent Society medics, s well as 76 from other NGOs.

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