A video retrieved from the mobile phone of an aid worker who was killed in Gaza, along with other rescuers, reveals their final moments, as reported by the Palestine Red Crescent. The footage shows ambulances with visible markings and emergency lights flashing amidst the sounds of heavy gunfire.
The aid worker was one of 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on March 23 in an assault by Israeli forces, according to both the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
The Israeli military has stated that its soldiers “did not randomly attack” any ambulances, asserting they targeted “terrorists” approaching in “suspicious vehicles.”
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani noted that troops opened fire on vehicles that lacked prior clearance from Israeli authorities and were not using their lights.
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The video, lasting six minutes and 42 seconds and apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a firetruck and ambulances traveling through the night amid continuous automatic gunfire.
The vehicles halt alongside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men step out. Moments later, an intense burst of gunfire erupts.
In the video, voices of two medics can be heard—one exclaiming, “the vehicle, the vehicle,” and the other replying, “It seems to be an accident.”
Seconds later, a barrage of gunfire erupts, and the screen goes black.
PRCS indicated it found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.
“This video clearly disproves the occupation’s claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances and that some vehicles approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings,” PRCS stated in a press release.
“The footage reveals the truth and dismantles this false narrative.”
Hamas referred to the video as a “damning piece of evidence of the occupation’s brutality.”
“It also illustrates a deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and hiding the truth,” Hamas stated.
Among the deceased were eight PRCS staff members, six personnel from the Gaza civil defense agency, and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Their bodies were discovered buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.
OCHA mentioned that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, more rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of assaults.
According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.
In the footage, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in moments facing death.
The deaths of the aid workers triggered international condemnation.
Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, remarked that the bodies of the humanitarian workers were “in their uniforms, still wearing gloves” when they were located.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, expressing concerns about potential “war crimes” committed by the Israeli military.
“I am horrified by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which heighten concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military,” Mr. Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
He called for an “independent, prompt, and thorough investigation.”
An Israeli military official stated that the bodies had been covered “in sand and cloth” to prevent damage until coordination with international organizations could be arranged for their retrieval.
The military affirmed that it is investigating the incident.
