Israel forces kill 15 Palestinian medical and rescue workers

Last week, the bodies of 15 Palestinian medical and rescue workers — including eight Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) workers, six members of the Gaza civil defence and one employee from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — were dug out from southern Gaza. On 23rd March 2025, Israeli forces shot vehicles carrying the workers who were travelling to evacuate Palestinian civilians and colleagues at Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah. According to reports, they were detained, shot “one-by-one” and buried in mass graves.

In a press release on 2nd April, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) claimed that the vehicles were shot because they moved suspiciously towards Israeli camps without “prior coordination, and without headlights or emergency signals”. The IDF claimed that at least six of the fifteen medical workers were part of militant groups. No evidence supporting this claim is found yet.

But a video discovered by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine from one of the victim's mobile phones shows the unfolding of the event in complete contradiction to the IDF’s claims.

An Israeli officer has anonymously accepted that the previous account of the vehicles not turning their lights on was a “mistake”, according to reports.

Further, the IDF claimed it had informed the UN of the incident and only buried the victims after the UN failed to collect them immediately. UN officials confirmed that they were informed immediately but denied access to the area for several days by the Israeli forces.

On 27th March, the OCHA team reached the site and found the ambulances and a UN vehicle crushed and buried under the sand along with the body of a civil defense worker. By 30th March, the 14 bodies had been found but a PRCS worker remained unaccounted for. Reports cited two witnesses who said that the bodies’ hands were tied indicating that they were detained before being shot. If these accounts are proven true then Israel could be charged with war crimes in the Gaza strip.

Earlier, on March 18, Israel broke the ceasefire citing Hamas’ failure in releasing the remaining Israeli hostages in the second phase of hostage exchange. “The only thing that can halt our further advance is the release of our hostages!” said the Chief of the General Staff in Gaza LTG Eyal Zamir according to the IDF’s X account. 

Israel has been on an relentless offensive since resuming attacks on 18 March 2025. Since the breach of the ceasefire in March 2025, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed. 

Israel’s attack on humanitarian workers is facing global condemnation with the UN and PRCS asking for an independent inquiry into the incident.

Photo: Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025.