'Israel' admits firing at Gaza ambulances; rescuers missing in Rafah
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The Israeli Army has repeatedly targeted ambulances and medical teams throughout its war on Gaza, killing hundreds of medical workers while claiming that Palestinian Resistance factions use the ambulances.
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Smoke rises to the sky after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2025. (AP)
The Israeli Occupation Army has admitted on Saturday that it opened fire on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after alleging that the medical vehicles were "suspicious vehicles."
The incident took place last Sunday in Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, with the IOF claiming that troops "opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists," according to AFP.
“A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops…The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists," the Israeli army claimed without clarifying if any shots were fired from the vehicles.
On Monday, Gazan Civil Defense stated that it had lost contact with a team of six rescuers who were dispatched to Tel al-Sultan to respond to deaths and injuries, and on Friday, it reported that it found the body of the team leader and the rescue vehicles, which were completely destroyed.
It stated that after a preliminary investigation, it found that some of the suspicious vehicles were ambulances and fire trucks, condemning what it alleged to be the repeated misuse of ambulances "by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip for terrorist purposes."
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s politburo, accused "Israel" of “a deliberate and brutal massacre against civil defence and Palestinian Red Crescent teams in the city of Rafah."
This comes as "Israel" continues to intensify its war on Gaza, striking numerous parts of the enclave, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians.
In the past 24 hours, Gaza hospitals received 26 Palestinian martyrs, including one whose body was retrieved from the rubble, along with 70 injuries. A number of victims remain trapped under the rubble and on the streets, as ambulance and civil defense teams are unable to reach them.
Since March 18, 2025, the total number of martyrs has risen to 921, while the number of injuries has reached 2,054. The overall toll of the Israeli genocide since October 7, 2023, has now reached 50,277 martyrs and 114,095 injuries.
