Gaza, April 6, 2025: The Israeli military has acknowledged errors in its initial explanation of a deadly March 23 incident in which 15 emergency workers were killed near Rafah in southern Gaza. The victims, including paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), were part of a convoy of ambulances, a UN-marked vehicle, and a fire truck responding to an emergency call.
Initially, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed the convoy was fired upon because it approached “suspiciously” in the dark without headlights or prior coordination. However, video evidence recovered from the scene contradicts that narrative.
Footage filmed by one of the slain paramedics, Refat Radwan, and later verified by The New York Times, shows the convoy with visible lights and clearly marked vehicles. The video records the moments before and during the attack, including Radwan’s final prayers and the arrival of Israeli troops.
An IDF official briefing journalists admitted that the claim about the vehicles lacking lights was inaccurate and attributed it to misreporting by the soldiers involved. The official also said soldiers had earlier fired on a car carrying suspected Hamas militants. When the emergency convoy later arrived and stopped near that vehicle, troops—acting on aerial surveillance—opened fire, fearing an imminent threat. The IDF now concedes none of the medics were armed.
The army further alleged that at least six of the medics had links to Hamas, though no supporting evidence has been presented publicly. The bodies of the medics were reportedly buried by soldiers in sand to prevent scavenging animals, with the scene remaining undiscovered for nearly a week due to security constraints on international aid agencies.
The IDF denies that any of the medics were executed or handcuffed before being killed. A surviving paramedic, however, told the BBC that the team was fully lit and had no militant ties.
Israel has pledged a “thorough examination” of the incident to assess both the sequence of events and its handling by military personnel. Meanwhile, the PRCS and other international humanitarian organizations have demanded an independent investigation.
The incident comes amid a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza that began on March 18, following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, over 1,200 people have died in the enclave since the operation resumed.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza was launched in response to a massive cross-border Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage. The death toll in Gaza has since surpassed 50,600, according to the same ministry.
