Video shows Gaza aid workers under Israeli fire while ambulance lights on, contradicting army claims

CAIRO – 5 April 2025: A video discovered on a mobile phone of a paramedic, whose body was found in a mass grave containing 15 relief workers killed by Israeli forces in Rafah last month, contradicts Israeli assertions that ambulances were not targeted intentionally and lacked emergency lighting or signals.

The footage, published by The New York Times, clearly shows that the ambulances and fire trucks used by the paramedics and civil defense teams were distinctly marked and had their emergency lights activated while under fire from Israeli forces.

The video, obtained from a senior UN diplomat, captures the moment when the members of the ambulance and civil defense teams were shot at, with their emergency lights flashing.

This evidence disputes Israeli claims that the vehicles were moving suspiciously without proper alerts.

The video features the voice of a paramedic reciting the Shahada (There is no god but Allah) during the gunfire.

Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers on 23 March and buried them in a mass grave in Tal Al-Sultan district of southern Gaza’s Rafah city.

The United Nations said the Israeli forces killed the workers, including at least one UN employee, “one by one.” A Red Crescent official in Gaza said one of the deceased was found with his hands tied.

“Seven days ago, civil defence and the [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] PRCS ambulances arrived at the scene,” Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine Jonathan Whittall said in a video statement.

“One by one, [the paramedics and civil defense workers] were hit, they were struck. Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave.

“We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives. Instead, they ended up in a mass grave,” Whittall said.

“These ambulances have been buried in the sand. There’s a UN vehicle here, buried in the sand. A bulldozer – Israeli forces bulldozer – has buried them.”