UN says 15 Gaza medics killed by IDF found in mass grave; IDF: We targeted terrorists
Army says troops opened fire after uncoordinated vehicles advanced suspiciously toward them without headlights or emergency signals, adds that it helped coordinate evacuation of bodies
Fifteen emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, the United Nations and the Hamas-linked Palestinian Civil Defense have been recovered from a grave in the sand in the south of the Gaza Strip, UN officials said on Monday.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a post on X that the bodies were buried near “wrecked & well-marked vehicles,” adding: “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers & justice.”
The IDF acknowledged Friday that it had fired on ambulances and fire engines, saying it had identified them as “suspicious vehicles.”
In a subsequent response on Monday, the IDF’s international media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani clarified that the military “did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23.”
“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles. Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route,” he said.
“Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” claimed Shoshani.
The IDF did ???????????? randomly attack an ambulance on March 23. Let me walk through what happened step-by-step:
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
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) March 31, 2025
“After coordination between the IDF and international organizations, the evacuation of bodies was carried out,” he said, adding that “it’s truly not surprising that terrorists are once again exploiting medical facilities and equipment for their activities.”
“When terrorists act in an active combat zone, we will do whatever it takes to protect our civilians and troops,” Shoshani added.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), tweeted that the bodies had been “discarded in shallow graves – a profound violation of human dignity.”
Lazzarini said the deaths brought the total number of aid workers killed since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to 408.
In a statement late on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “appalled” at the deaths.
“Their bodies were identified today and have been recovered for dignified burial. These staff and volunteers were risking their own lives to provide support to others,” it said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said one worker from the nine-strong Red Crescent group was still unaccounted for. It did not immediately comment on the details of the site where the bodies were found. The group went missing on March 23 to tend to the injured in Rafah, after Israel resumed an all-out offensive against Hamas.
The Palestine Red Crescent said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defense members and one UN employee from the same area. It said Israeli forces had targeted the workers. Red Cross statements did not apportion blame for the attacks.
Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the site where the bodies were found as a “mass grave,” saying it had been marked with the emergency light from a crushed ambulance.
His comments on X were accompanied by pictures of Red Crescent teams digging in the sand for the bodies next to a mangled fire truck and a U.N. vehicle.
An OCHA spokesperson said in response to Reuters questions that the burial site resembled a large mound of sand which was “clearly created by a bulldozer or similar machinery rather the impact of a blast.”
“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues,” the spokesperson added.
1/6 First responders should never be a target. Yet today @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Defense to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that was marked with the emergency light from one of their crushed ambulances. pic.twitter.com/xFYFXWp2c6
— Jonathan Whittall (@_jwhittall) March 30, 2025
The incident was the single most deadly attack on Red Cross or Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.
“I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians,” said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain.
“They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked,” he added.
According to the United Nations, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to Hama’s October 7 onslaught during which some 1,200 people were killed and roughly 250 were taken hostage.
The IDF says that Hamas operatives regularly operate from within medical facilities and has said that some of those it has killed were Hamas operatives disguised or working part-time as medical personnel.
Due to safety concerns, the UN is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 921 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its large-scale strikes on March 18. The strikes collapsed a hostage release and ceasefire deal that had been in place for two months. Israel said it had decided to renew military pressure after Hamas refused repeated offers to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, which ended on March 1. For its part, Hamas has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the deal, which was supposed to see the commencement of phase two on March 2. That phase envisions the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a permanent end to the war, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to authorize, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power.
In total, over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, according to the ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it had killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
The Times of Israel Community.