Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRC) called for an independent international investigation into the “deliberate murder” of 15 medical and humanitarian workers in an attack on the Israeli forces in Gaza.
In a statement on Monday, the group said that the attack on March 23 in the southern city of Rafah de Gaza “constitutes a war crime in its own right, and it reflects a dangerous scheme of repeated violation of international humanitarian law”.
The president of the PRCS, Younis al-Khatib, said that an independent commission was necessary “to establish the facts and to hold responsible managers”.
Israeli forces opened fire on doctors, who led to ambulances to help the wounded on the site of a previous Israeli attack.
A video recently recovered on the mobile phone of one of the doctors showed his last moments. The doctors wore highly reflective uniforms and were inside clearly identifiable rescue vehicles before being slaughtered by Israeli forces in the Tal AS-Sultan district of Rafah.
According to the PRC, the convoy suffered heavy shots for about five minutes. He said the communication between the team and the Central Dispatch Center “confirms that the shots continued for no less than two hours” with a continuous shooting heard until the contact is completely lost with one of the doctors.
This was also confirmed by a survivor, who said that the ambulances were under direct fire without warning, according to Al-Khatib. The survivor also said that it was used by Israeli officers as a “human shield” before being able to escape.
“It is no longer enough to speak of respect for international law and the Geneva Convention,” Al-Khatib told El-Bireh at the occupied West Bank. “It is now required from the international community and the United Nations Security Council to implement the necessary sanction against all those responsible.”
“Who tells the truth?”
Al-Khatib also called on the international community to protect humanitarian workers and prevent the targeting of hospitals, medical centers and ambulances.
He also asked Israel to disclose where the PRCS staff who have still disappeared.
The PRCs have lost eight of its workers in the attack. Six members of the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency and an employee of the United Nations Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, were also killed.
The Israeli army said that its soldiers “had not attacked” no ambulance, insisting that they fired on “terrorists” who approached them in “suspicious vehicles”.
“Several non-coordinated vehicles have been identified, advancing troops (Israeli army) with suspicion without headlights or emergency signals,” he said.
But Al-Khatib refuted this assertion, saying that the ambulances had light emergency lights.
“We, among the PRCs, are used to the false allegations of Israel and the stories manufactured with regard to what is happening in the Gaza Strip,” said Al-Khatib.
“We believe that the whole world, including the media representatives, has now realized who says the truth,” he added.
🚨 Red Palestine Crescent Society calls for an independent international survey to hold managers of the targeting crime of ambulance teams in Rafah
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says that targeting its ambulance convoy by Israeli… pic.twitter.com/yvtxnolam
– PRCS (@palestinercs) April 7, 2025
In his declaration, the PRCS said that the area was not classified as a “red zone” at the time of the emergency response, which means that no prior coordination was necessary to access the site.
He said that for several days after that, Israeli forces prevented the rescue teams from accessing the area under the pretext that it was a “red zone”.
Then, only a limited access was granted, during which the PRC teams recovered the body of a member of the Civil Defense before the Israeli forces contract the rescue team to withdraw, he said.
On March 30, the bodies of 14 others were discovered in a “tomb in a brutal and degrading way which violates human dignity”, added the PRCs.
The attack was criticized by civil defense, the Gaza Government’s media office, Hamas and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, who said the incident was worrying about the possible “war crimes” by the Israeli army.
Meanwhile, Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since Israel had broken the ceasefire in Gaza on March 18 and resumed his war against the enclave, Israeli air attacks have struck “dense areas populated” with “patients killed in their hospital beds, You are”.
According to UNRWA, at least 408 humanitarian workers, including more than 280 UNRWA staff, have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war on October 7, 2023.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that since March 18, at least 921 people have been killed in the territory since March 18, adding to more than 50,000 killed since the start of the war – most children and women.
Violence pushed the head of six United Nations agencies to call on Monday for an immediate renewal of the ceasefire that Israel has unilaterally broke and the start of the humanitarian aid in Gaza.
