U.N. Accuses Israel of Killing 15 Rescue Workers in Gaza

As Israeli forces pushed forward into the southern Gaza city of Rafah early last Sunday, an ambulance crew was dispatched to evacuate civilians injured by Israeli shelling. However, before reaching their destination, the ambulance and its crew came under fire.

Over the next several hours, additional emergency vehicles, including multiple ambulances, a fire truck, and even a United Nations vehicle, attempted to reach the site to aid the wounded, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations. Seventeen rescue personnel in total set out to assist. Then, suddenly, all communication ceased.

It took five days of negotiations between the United Nations, the Red Crescent, and the Israeli military to secure safe passage to search for the missing responders. Once permission was granted, U.N. officials reported that a retrieval team discovered 15 bodies, most of them hastily buried in a mass grave.

On Sunday, the United Nations made an uncharacteristically direct accusation, holding Israel responsible for their deaths.

“They were killed by Israeli forces while attempting to save lives,” stated U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on social media platform X. “We demand answers and justice.”

Both the Red Crescent and the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the killings, asserting that humanitarian workers should never be targeted. The Red Crescent went a step further, labeling the act a war crime and calling for accountability.

In response, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani claimed that nine of the deceased were Palestinian militants. He stated that Israeli forces had not indiscriminately attacked an ambulance but rather had identified several vehicles moving without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops in a suspicious manner, prompting them to open fire.

U.N. officials, however, maintained that the vehicles were clearly marked as emergency responders.

Colonel Shoshani further alleged that among those killed was Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, a Hamas military operative who had participated in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. He asserted that eight additional members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were also eliminated, accusing the groups of once again exploiting medical equipment and facilities for their operations.

Notably, he did not specify whether these militants were inside the emergency vehicles at the time of the attack or address the identities of the remaining six individuals who lost their lives.

Following the assault, U.N. officials reported that Israeli forces proceeded to bulldoze and crush the ambulances, the fire truck, and the U.N. vehicle.

The Red Crescent confirmed that one medic remained unaccounted for. Meanwhile, the sole survivor—a Red Crescent worker—was detained, beaten, and later released by Israeli forces, according to the organization. The survivor recounted that both of his fellow crew members were killed by Israeli troops, a claim corroborated by U.N. officials.

Among the 17 individuals who set out on the mission, 10 were affiliated with the Red Crescent, six were emergency responders from Gaza’s civil defense, and one was a U.N. worker, according to U.N. sources.

Jonathan Whittall, the top U.N. humanitarian official in Gaza, was present when the retrieval team arrived at the site. He later shared images on social media showing the vehicles reduced to mangled wreckage, with the U.N. vehicle’s distinctive navy-blue “N” still visible.

“One by one, they were struck. Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,” Whittall stated in a video message distributed by the United Nations.

During the search, the team also witnessed fresh chaos and violence unfolding in Rafah. Whittall described hundreds of civilians fleeing under gunfire, and in one instance, a woman was shot in the back of the head. He shared a video appearing to show two men attempting to retrieve her body—only for one of them to be shot as well. Whittall did not specify the source of the gunfire.

By Thursday, U.N. teams had located the crumpled vehicles. After hours of digging, they uncovered the remains of a civil defense worker buried beneath his fire truck, Whittall reported. The remaining bodies were recovered on Sunday.

“We’re uncovering them still in their uniforms, wearing their gloves,” Whittall narrated in his video. “They came to save lives. Instead, they were buried in a mass grave.” A destroyed ambulance’s emergency light was left as a marker for the grave.

Colonel Shoshani contended that the vehicles had not received authorization to travel through the area, unlike other ambulances that had been granted passage earlier that day. However, Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, refuted this claim. She explained that when the ambulances set out at approximately 3:30 a.m. on March 23, the Israeli military had yet to designate the area as a “red zone,” which would have required emergency vehicles to obtain clearance from Israel before proceeding.

Israel has not addressed allegations that it buried the victims in a mass grave or destroyed their vehicles.

Since the war began, the Red Crescent reports that 27 of its medics have lost their lives.

A cease-fire had temporarily halted hostilities in Gaza from January until March 18, when Israel resumed military operations.