According to the Israeli military, the initial reports concerning the killing of 15 individuals in southern Gaza, who the United Nations labeled as paramedics and rescue personnel, were partially incorrect.

This disclosure, provided by a military official during a briefing with reporters, comes a day after The New York Times obtained a video that appears to contradict the military’s previous claims. The official requested anonymity due to military rules.

The military’s ongoing investigation into the incident, which has drawn international attention and criticism, is still in progress.

During the briefing, it was stated that a reserve infantry brigade had set up an ambush near Rafah in southern Gaza on March 23 and killed two Hamas security personnel, while detaining a third, at around 4 a.m.

Two hours later as it was dawn, a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck arrived at the scene. The Israeli forces had received information from a surveillance aircraft that the convoy was headed in their direction. Upon the rescue workers’ arrival and exit from their vehicles, the forces assumed additional Hamas members had arrived and fired on the vehicle occupants from a distance.

Contrary to earlier Israeli claims that the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without lights or emergency signals, the video shows that the ambulances and fire truck were clearly marked with emergency lights when the Israeli forces fired upon them.

At the Saturday briefing, the military spokesperson did not explain the discrepancy, other than stating that the original account from the ground forces had been incorrect.

The spokesperson added that, to their belief, at least six of the 15 individuals were Hamas operatives, but did not provide immediate evidence due to the classified nature of the identification process. The military had previously maintained that nine of the deceased were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

The Red Crescent, International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations have previously stated that all the deceased were humanitarian workers who should not have been targeted.

Rescue teams found 15 bodies, including most in a shallow grave alongside their destroyed ambulances and a UN-marked vehicle on March 30. The video accessed by The Times was recovered from a paramedic’s cellphone found in that grave.

The Israeli spokesperson declined to comment whether the deceased had been armed, mentioning that Hamas operatives do not usually wear military uniforms and often disguise themselves.

Since the 15 individuals initially disappeared, the incident has been under international scrutiny. The United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society stated that the aid workers were unarmed and presented no threat. Doctor Younis Al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, asserted that the bodies had been targeted at very close range.

Officials from the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported last week that ambulances had set out around 3:30 a.m. on March 23 to evacuate wounded Palestinians due to Israeli shelling, but one ambulance and its crew were hit en route.

Subsequently, several more ambulances and a fire truck, along with a U.N. vehicle, made their way to the scene to provide rescue assistance. Seventeen individuals made up the team, consisting of 10 Red Crescent workers, six Gaza civil defense emergency responders, and one U.N. worker.

According to the Red Crescent, one medic is still missing, and another had been detained by Israeli forces and subsequently released.