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The United Nations, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and Gaza's civil defence agency rejected an Israeli military report that attributed the March 23 killings of 15 rescue workers in southern Gaza to "professional failures."
Eight PRCS paramedics, six civil defence personnel, and one UNRWA worker were killed while carrying out two rescue missions in Rafah.
The Israeli army initially claimed that the vehicles were not marked with emergency signals, but retracted the assertion after mobile phone footage surfaced.
An internal investigation by the Israeli army concluded on Sunday that the incident involved "breaches of orders, professional failures, and a failure to fully report the incident," prompting disciplinary actions against two commanders.
PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh called the report "invalid and unacceptable," in a statement, stating that it attempts to justify the killings by attributing blame to errors in field command. The PRCS has renewed its call for an international investigation.
Gaza's civil defense accused the Israeli military of "fabricating a narrative" and alleged that video evidence indicates the medics were “executed,” not mistakenly targeted.
Jonathan Whittall, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, criticized the report for lacking accountability. "Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfold, and the norms designed to protect us all eroding," he said.
The occupation's policy of systematic distortion of the truth is apparent which is distinguishable by its bias towards its soldiers and in protecting them from international accountability.
The PRCS invites the international community to compare the results of the occupation’s investigation with the clear evidence refuting its results; if the teams were really targeted by mistake, why does the occupation continue to hold EMT Asad Al-Nasasra captive? The occupation’s usual resort to claiming that protected missions were targeted by mistake in an abhorrent attempt to void its responsibilities from its recurrent violations of international humanitarian law must not be met with silence.
We call on the international community to abstain from validating the results of the occupation’s fabricated investigation. We also invite the international community to support the PRCS as it currently works with relevant international organizations and mechanisms in efforts to conduct an independent investigation to reveal the truth behind this perpetrated crime.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
The Israeli army stated that poor night visibility and a misidentification of targets led to the shooting of ambulances and a U.N. vehicle.
According to the military, soldiers violated orders by firing at a U.N.-marked vehicle 15 minutes after the initial attack.
The bodies and damaged vehicles were buried in a mass grave, which U.N. retrieval teams could not access for several days. Postmortem examinations showed victims had died from gunshots to the head and torso or explosive injuries, with no signs of restraint, contradicting initial Israeli claims of security threats.
The Israeli army alleged six of the victims were Hamas members, a claim denied by the PRCS, the civil defence agency, and U.N. officials. None of those killed were armed, according to eyewitnesses and humanitarian groups.
This incident follows a broader pattern of concerns raised by international observers. According to the U.S. State Department's 2023 human rights report, fewer than 1% of complaints against Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories led to convictions.
Researcher Dan Owen of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, stated that most such incidents go unreported. The Israeli army has not yet responded to a Freedom of Information request filed by Yesh Din regarding civilian harm in the Gaza war.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), stated that Gaza is facing "the worst humanitarian conditions seen so far during the war," citing Israel's blockade on aid that has lasted more than 50 days.
"There is a clear trajectory toward catastrophe," Laerke said at a U/N/ press briefing in Geneva.
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