Footage from a mobile phone recovered from one of the 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers killed by Israeli forces in an incident in Gaza last month appears to contradict the IDF’s account of the events. The seven-minute video filmed from a moving vehicle shows a marked fire engine and ambulances driving with headlights and flashing emergency lights. The vehicle stops to inspect another that has veered off the road, then gunfire is heard before the screen goes dark.

The Israeli military maintains that soldiers did not attack ambulances randomly but fired on “terrorists” near “suspicious vehicles” and without prior clearance for entering the area. An IDF spokesperson said that troops fired on vehicles with their lights off. The IDF said the incident remains under investigation and that all claims, including the video evidence, will be thoroughly examined.

Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one UN employee, were killed in the incident in Rafah on 23 March. The UN reports that Israeli forces shot the men “one by one” and buried them in a mass grave. Emergency vehicles with lights and sirens are seen in the footage. The PRCS and civil defense workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues shot earlier that day when their marked vehicles were hit by heavy Israeli fire. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, and another worker from the mission remains missing.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/05/phone-footage-appears-to-contradict-israeli-account-of-killing-of-gaza-paramedics