The Palestinian Red Crescent said the murdered workers and their vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel and accused Israeli forces of killing them “cold-blooded”. The Israeli military said its troops opened fire on vehicles that were approaching them “suspiciously” without identification.
The deceased included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of the Gaza Civil Defense Emergency Department and a staff member of the UN Palestinian agency’s UN Rescue. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent said it was the deadliest attack on people in eight years.
According to the United Nations
This is what we know about what happened.
They have been missing for several days since they went to Israeli troops to launch an attack on the southern city of Rafah around noon on March 23.
Earlier in the day, the military called for the evacuation of the area, saying Hamas militants were operating there. Civil Defense alerts at the time said the displaced Palestinians living in the area were attacked and a team that rescued them was “surrounded by Israeli forces.”
“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23,” the UN said in a statement on Sunday night.
It said the emergency team that further rescued the first team “hit one after another in a few hours.” According to Civil Defense, all teams went out during the day.
On March 23, the Israeli military said on Sunday that troops opened fire on vehicles that did not have emergency signals at vehicles that were “advanced towards them”.
It said the “preliminary assessment” determined that the troops killed a Hamas surgical staff named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other militants. Israel has bumped into ambulances and other emergency vehicles in the past, accusing Hamas militants of using it for transportation.
However, Red Crescent and Civil Defense’s deceased did not have a name, and no other bodies were found at the scene, which raised questions about the military’s suggestions that there were suspected militants among the aid workers.
The military did not immediately respond to the request for other names suspected of killing other militants or comment on how first responders were buried.
The United Nations asked Israel to kill emergency personnel on Monday.
“They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives,” said UN Humanitarian Director Tom Fletcher.
Israel restarted its military campaign in Gaza on March 18 after a ceasefire that lasted about two months. Since then, bombings and new ground attacks have caused more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but more than half of them are women and children.
Aid workers say ambulance teams and humanitarians have been under fire in the reattack. An Israeli strike killed a worker in the Central Kitchen of Charity World on Friday, which was attacked by distributing free meals next to the kitchen. The United Nations said that Israeli tank strikes killed a staff member while Israel denied being behind the bombing rack. The huge grave was not allowed to enter the site where the emergency team disappeared for a few days.
On Wednesday, the United Nations convoy tried to arrive at the scene but encountered Israeli forces firing at people.
The convoy saw a woman lying on the road and was shot. Dashboard video shows staff talking about retrieving the woman. Then I saw two people crossing the road. The gunshots rang out and they ran away. One stumbled, apparently injured, then was shot and dropped to the ground. The United Nations said the team retrieved the woman’s body and left.
The United Nations said on Sunday that the team was able to reach the site after the Israeli military buried his body in a barren area on the edge of Erdell-Suldan. Video released by the United Nations shows workers from China and civil defense, wearing masks and bright orange vests, digging out dirt that appeared to be piled up by Israeli bulldozers. The videos show them digging out multiple bodies wearing orange emergency vests. Certain bodies piled up on each other. Once, they pulled out a body of a civil defense vest from the dirt, which was shown to be a legless torso. Several ambulances and a United Nations vehicle, all severely damaged or torn, were buried in the dirt.
“Their bodies are gathered in this massive grave,” Jonathan Whittall said on the website in the video with Ocha. “We are digging out their uniforms in gloves. They are here to save lives.”
“It’s absolutely horrible,” he said.
Funeral gathered outside the morgue in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday, when the bodies of eight killed PRCS workers were taken out for the funeral. As families and others hold funeral prayers on it, their bodies are arranged on stretchers wrapped in white cloth with red crescent logos on it. Seven funerals followed.
“Although the nature of their humanitarian mission is clear, they were killed by the Israeli occupation,” Raed Al-Nimis, a spokesman for the Red Crescent in Gaza, told the Associated Press.
During the war, Israeli troops killed at least 30 Red Crescent Society. Two of them were killed in February 2024 while trying to rescue Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl who was killed while she was trapped in a car under a fire in Israel in northern Gaza, along with six other relatives.
Jagan Chapagain from Geneva, the International Federation of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the staff killed last week “worn signs that should protect them; their ambulances were clearly marked.”
“All humans must be protected,” he said.
