Footage shows PRCS ambulances clearly marked during Israeli attack on medics
As we previously reported, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and aid workers in Gaza by Israeli soldiers last month.
The aid workers disappeared on March 23 during a rescue mission in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood after they came under attack by Israeli forces, who claimed the crew was “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.
A video recording – found on the cellphone of one paramedic and provided to The New York Times by a senior UN diplomat who requested anonymity – appears to directly contradict the Israeli military’s version of events.
The footage, the time and location of which was verified by The Times, shows that the PRCS ambulances and firetruck were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on before they were attacked by Israeli soldiers.
At least two rescue workers can also be seen wearing reflective uniforms as they exit their vehicles to tend to a stranded ambulance when Israeli troops open fire.
In the video recording by the paramedic – who was later found in a mass grave with a bullet in his head – he can be heard repeatedly saying the “shahada”, the Muslim declaration of faith recited when facing death.
Evidence suggests some of the men were killed execution-style by Israeli forces.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/05/middleeast/gaza-aid-workers-video-israel-intl/index.html
The video is filmed from the front of a vehicle and shows a convoy of clearly marked ambulances moving along a road at dawn, with headlights and flashing emergency lights on.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) asserted last week that “several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles.”
After the video emerged, the IDF repeated that the incident was being investigated.
The video shows the convoy stopping when it comes across another vehicle at the side of the road – which the PRCS says was an ambulance that had been sent earlier to help injured civilians. Two of the rescuers who get out of the vehicles are wearing uniforms. A fire truck and an ambulance at the scene are marked with the PRCS insignia.
Almost immediately there is intense gunfire, which can be heard hitting the convoy. The video ends, but the audio continues for five minutes.
PRCS president provides evidence of Israel’s slaying of 15 emergency workers in Gaza
We reported earlier that the president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Dr Younis al-Khatib has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 15 medics and aid workers by Israeli forces in Gaza last month.
Speaking during a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York, al-Khatib told reporters that he had presented audiovisual evidence to officials at the UN’s Security Council and asked for its support in launching an independent probe of the mass killing.
“I heard the voice of one of those team members who was killed. And his phone was found with this body. And he recorded the whole event. His last words, before being shot. Forgive me, Mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives. And then he was killed.”
PRCS vice president, Marwan Jilani, also spoke at the news conference about the video evidence.
“This was the phone of one of our EMS members, of the paramedics who was killed. So, the phone was on his body. The phone was in his pocket. So, it was with him. That’s why we retrieved that video. There is a longer video,” Jilani said.
“I think the scale of this crime should force, that it should oblige the international community to do more and not to accept that this would be another incident that goes in the files and be forgotten after a few days,” he said.
‘Lone survivor’ describes Israeli attack on emergency workers
A Palestinian paramedic at the scene of the attack that killed 15 of his colleagues says he saw Israeli troops firing at emergency vehicles that he later saw stained with blood. Munther Abed, a volunteer for the Palestine Red Crescent, said he was responding to a call with two colleagues near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip on March 23 when he was detained by the Israeli soldiers shortly before they opened fire on other emergency vehicles.
“I could see the vehicle of the civil emergency. The soldiers began shooting at the vehicles, they fired heavily,” he said. “It was dark and I couldn’t see what happened to the people there.”
The Palestine Red Crescent describes Abed as “the lone survivor” of the incident, with the fate of one missing paramedic still unclear. It was only after daybreak that the Red Crescent’s Munther Abed – who remained held by Israeli troops – was able to get a better idea of what happened to his colleagues.
“With the first light of day things become clearer. I saw the vehicles of the civil emergency and the Red Crescent. The doors of all the vehicles were open and there was blood on the vehicles,” he said. A bulldozer had dug four holes in the sand before crushing the wrecked vehicles and burying them. “At that time I had no clue about the fate of my colleagues,” he said.
Abed said he was held in detention by Israeli forces for about 15 hours during which he was interrogated and beaten. He said he saw the aid worker who is still missing, detained by Israeli soldiers.
“They asked me where I had been on October 7, they were saying Palestinians are terrorists, and that we are all terrorists.”
Eventually, he said, the soldiers made some checks on him before deciding to release him.
