5 April 2025

Video Shows Aid Workers in Gaza Killed by Israeli Occupation With Ambulance Lights On

Evidence directly contradicts Israeli army’s false claims. UN and Red Crescent say the attack was deliberate. Bodies were later found in a mass grave, apparently buried by Israeli bulldozers. The Israeli soldiers laid in wait for the aid workers and rained fire for at least 6 minutes.

*This is a rewritten version of a New York Times article originally published on 4 April 2025. It preserves all verified facts but removes language that downplays the scale and nature of the atrocity. As the Palestinians well know, the Israeli occupation has zero accountability. 18,000 dead Palestinian children demonstrates that. I’m writing this to bear witness —to name what happened, expose the lies, and honour those who were murdered trying to save lives. I'm just not going to amplify lies.

A video recovered from the mobile phone of one of fifteen murdered Palestinian aid workers shows the moment Israeli troops opened fire on a group of medics in Gaza in late March, as they attempted to carry out a rescue mission. The aid workers were in clearly marked ambulances and a fire truck, with headlights and flashing emergency lights on. All 15 were later found in a mass grave, their bodies riddled with bullets and their vehicles crushed and buried.

The footage provides direct evidence that contradicts the Israeli military’s public account, in which it falsely claimed that the convoy was “advancing suspiciously” without lights or emergency signals. That claim, repeated even after international concern, now stands exposed as a lie.

Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society presented the video at a news conference on Friday at the United Nations, moderated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The nearly seven-minute recording was obtained by The New York Times from a senior UN diplomat, who shared it on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the material. The footage was subsequently presented to the UN Security Council.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani had stated earlier in the week that Israeli forces had not “randomly attacked” an ambulance, but had fired after observing several vehicles “advancing suspiciously” without emergency signals. He also claimed, without evidence, that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. Israel did not provide any immediate response after the release of the video that disproves those statements.

The Times verified the timing and location of the video, filmed in the southern city of Rafah early on 23 March. Captured from the interior of a moving vehicle, it shows a convoy consisting of multiple ambulances and a fire truck, all clearly marked with Red Crescent emblems, driving along a road north of Rafah. Their headlights and flashing lights are on. The calm of early morning is evident—dawn is breaking, and birds can be heard chirping.

The convoy halts when it encounters a vehicle off to the side of the road. According to the Red Crescent, one ambulance had earlier been dispatched to aid civilians injured by Israeli attacks and had come under fire. The second wave of rescue vehicles had been sent to retrieve them.

As the convoy detours, rescue workers—at least two of whom are visible in uniform—exit a fire truck and an ambulance. They walk towards the earlier vehicle. Without warning, gunfire erupts.

The camera jerks and the screen goes dark, but the audio continues for five minutes. A relentless barrage of automatic fire can be heard. The scale and duration of the gunfire leaves little doubt about its intensity and intent.

In the background, a voice in Arabic identifies the attackers: “There are Israelis.” The paramedic who was filming begins to recite the shahada—the Muslim declaration of faith spoken when facing death: “There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger.” He pleads for forgiveness, and resigns himself to death. “Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose—to help people,” he says. “Allahu akbar,” he repeats—God is great.

Other distraught voices of aid workers are heard. Shouting in Hebrew—believed to be Israeli soldiers issuing commands—follows in the background. Their words are not clear. The recording ends in chaos.

According to Red Crescent spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh, the paramedic who filmed the video was later discovered with a bullet wound to the head, buried in a mass grave. His name has not been released due to fears of Israeli retaliation against his relatives in Gaza, the UN diplomat said.

At the UN press conference, Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and his deputy, Marwan Jilani, said the video and forensic analysis of the bodies prove that the Israeli military’s version of events was false.

The deaths of the 15 aid workers, who went missing on 23 March, have drawn condemnation across the humanitarian sector. Both the UN and the Red Crescent have confirmed that the victims were unarmed medical responders and posed no threat.

Dr. Khatib said the bodies showed signs of having been “targeted from a very close range.” He added that Israel withheld information about the medics’ fate for days. “They knew exactly where they were—because they killed them,” he said. “Their colleagues were in agony. Their families were in agony. They kept us for eight days in the dark.”

It took five days after the attack before the UN and the Red Crescent were able to secure Israeli military permission to search for the missing personnel. On Sunday, 15 bodies were found—most in a shallow mass grave—alongside their vehicles, which had been destroyed. One of the vehicles was marked with a UN logo.

Satellite imagery captured a few hours after the massacre, and analysed by The Times, shows that the ambulances and fire truck had been moved from the road and clustered together. A second image, taken two days later, reveals that the vehicles had been buried. Disturbed earth is visible alongside three Israeli military bulldozers and an excavator. Bulldozers also constructed earthen barriers on both sides of the road—an apparent effort to seal off the area and conceal the crime.

One Palestinian Red Crescent worker remains missing. Israel has not confirmed whether he is dead or in custody, Dr. Khatib said.

Dr. Ahmad Dhair, a forensic doctor in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, examined five of the recovered bodies. Four had multiple gunshot wounds, including shots to the head, torso, and joints—wounds consistent with targeted killings. One Red Crescent paramedic who survived the attack was detained and later released by the Israeli military. According to both the UN and Red Crescent, he confirmed that Israeli troops had opened fire on the ambulances.

Dylan Winder, UN representative for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, called the killings “an outrage” and confirmed it was the single deadliest attack on Red Crescent workers globally since 2017.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the Security Council that the incident demands an independent investigation and raises “further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military.”