15 Palestinian Medics In Gaza Who Disappeared While Saving People Have Been Found Massacred By Israel
The emergency teams had gone missing on March 23, when they were responding to Israeli attacks in Rafah.
The bodies of 15 Palestinian medics and emergency responders have been found massacred by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza after they went missing for a week.
The emergency teams had first gone missing on March 23, when they were responding to Israeli attacks in the Tel al-Sultan district in the southern city of Rafah at around noon.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had sent one ambulance to help injured Palestinians but Israeli forces fired on the ambulance and injured the crew, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told Al Jazeera.
The PRCS then sent another three ambulances to go help the injured people and rescue their colleagues, but they were "struck one after another over several hours" by Israeli forces, according to the UN.
The UN said that the workers and their vehicles had been clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel.
Despite all being dispatched in broad daylight, the PRCS then lost contact with their colleagues.
The Israeli military then blocked access to the site where the teams disappeared for days, despite multiple appeals from the IFRC, PRCS, ICRC and the UN to enter the area to investigate, according to the IFRC.
The UN said on Sunday, March 30, that it was finally able to reach the site after the Israeli military told it where it had buried the bodies.
Footage from the UN showed workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defense digging out multiple bodies under hills of dirt that had been piled up by Israeli bulldozers.
They found the bodies of eight slain members PRCS, six members of Gaza's Civil Defense emergency unit and a UNRWA staff member.
“We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives,” a UN spokesperson said.
The PRCS said one of the bodies was found with his hands bound, and they found another body that was a torso with no legs.
Another PRCS ambulance officer Assad al-Nassasra is still missing.
The PRCS ambulances and a UN vehicle were also found heavily damaged and buried in the dirt.
The Israeli military then said on Sunday, April 1, that its troops had opened fire on vehicles that were "advancing suspiciously" towards them "without headlights or emergency signals".
It claimed without evidence that "terrorists" had been hiding among the rescue workers and they killed a Hamas member called Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other Hamas militants.
The IDF did 𝗻𝗼𝘁 randomly attack an ambulance on March 23. Let me walk through what happened step-by-step:
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) March 31, 2025
1. Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then… https://t.co/VdtyXd8qj5
However none of the killed emergency staff were named Mohammed Amin Shobaki, and no other bodies were found at the site.
The Israeli military did not respond to the AP's requests for comment.
The UN has denounced the massacre, saying that the first responders “were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers & justice.”
“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected," the IFRC said.
On Monday, April 1, hundreds of Palestinians gathered for the funeral for the eight killed PRCS workers.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 100 Civil Defense workers and more than 1,000 health workers, according to the UN.
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