Video shows 15 aid workers killed in Gaza were in marked vehicles - contradicting Israel’s account

LAST UPDATE | 21 hrs ago

A VIDEO RECOVERED from the phone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts.

The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on 23 March in an attack by Israeli forces.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the Palestinian Civil Defense and UN employees were on a humanitarian mission to collect dead and wounded civilians outside the southern city of Rafah when they were killed and then buried in the sand by a bulldozer alongside their flattened vehicles, according to the UN.

The Israeli military has said its soldiers “did not randomly attack” any ambulances, insisting they fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles”.

A military spokesman said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off.

But the video released by PRCS today appears to contradict these claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights and emergency lights clearly flashing.

The following footage is distressing to watch.

The six minute and 42 second video, seemingly filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red fire truck and ambulances driving through the night.

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The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.

In the video, the voices of two medics are heard – one saying, “the vehicle, the vehicle,” and another responding: “It seems to be an accident.”

Seconds later, a volley of gunfire breaks out, and the screen goes black.

PRCS said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.

“This video unequivocally refutes the occupation’s claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings,” PRCS said in a statement.

Those killed included eight PRCS staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

Their bodies were found buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

A forensic doctor who examined the bodies said there is evidence of execution-style killing, based on the “specific and intentional” location of shots at close range.

Fears and prayers

OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of successive attacks.

According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.

In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.

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“There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger,” he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background.

He is also heard saying: “Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people.”

He then says, “accept my martyrdom, God, and forgive me.” Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying, “The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming,” referring to Israeli soldiers.

The deaths of the aid workers have sparked international condemnation.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were “in their uniforms, still wearing gloves” when they were found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, raising concerns over possible “war crimes” by the Israeli military.

Turk called for an “independent, prompt and thorough investigation” into the attack.

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered “in sand and cloth” to avoid damage until coordination with international organisations could be arranged for their retrieval.

The military said it was investigating the attack.

With reporting from Jane Matthews