The discovery of a video on the cellphone of a paramedic found in a mass grave in Gaza, along with 14 other aid workers, reveals that their ambulances and fire truck were clearly marked and had emergency signal lights on when Israeli troops opened fire on them. The Palestine Red Crescent Society presented the seven-minute recording to the U.N. Security Council, depicting the convoy of vehicles traveling south in Rafah before they were attacked on March 23. The video shows rescue workers exiting the vehicles marked with the Red Crescent emblem before intense gunfire breaks out.
Israel claimed that the vehicles were advancing suspiciously without headlights or emergency signals toward their troops, leading them to shoot. The Palestine Red Crescent Society has refuted this claim, stating that the evidence they have collected contradicts Israel’s version of events. The paramedic who filmed the video was later found with a bullet in his head in the mass grave, reciting the Muslim declaration of faith while the gunfire continued. The deaths of the aid workers, who were unarmed and posed no threat, have drawn international condemnation and calls for an independent investigation into the incident.
After the rescue vehicles came under attack, it took five days for the United Nations and Red Crescent to negotiate with the Israeli military for safe passage to search for the missing people. Fifteen bodies were eventually found in a shallow mass grave along with their crushed ambulances and a U.N.-marked vehicle. Satellite images taken hours after the event show the vehicles clustered together, with later images indicating that they were buried with Israeli military bulldozers present. One member of the Palestinian Red Crescent is still missing, and Dr. Ahmad Dhair examined the bodies of some of the aid workers, confirming multiple gunshot wounds.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called the attack an outrage, marking the single deadliest incident on their workers since 2017. The U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent investigation into the matter, expressing concerns over potential war crimes committed by the Israeli military. The incident has sparked international scrutiny and condemnation of the Israeli forces’ actions, with calls for accountability for the deaths of the aid workers. The evidence presented by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, including the video and audio recordings, details the events leading to the tragic deaths of the paramedics and aid workers in Rafah.
