• Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah in Gaza on March 31, 2025 (AP)

An Israeli military inquiry ruled Sunday that its forces did not employ "indiscriminate fire" in an attack that killed 15 Gaza emergency service members, but it admitted to "failures" and announced preparations to remove a field commander as a result.

The Palestine Red Crescent rejected the findings of the investigation, denouncing the report as "full of lies."

"The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different," Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, told AFP.

The killings prompted widespread condemnation last month after it emerged that Israeli occupation forces had opened fire on paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, Civil Defense, and UN-affiliated teams while they were conducting a rescue mission in southern Gaza.

The victims and their vehicles were later discovered buried in a sandy mass grave by Israeli forces. After exhuming the bodies, the United Nations stated the workers appeared to have been “executed one by one.”

In addition, the doctor who performed autopsies on 15 medics and rescue workers revealed that most victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head and torso, along with injuries caused by explosives.

The Israeli military alleged that the probe found "no evidence to support claims of execution," while admiting to "several professional failures, breaches of orders, and a failure to fully report the incident."

As a result, the commander is to be dismissed for "providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief."

'Israel' backtracks on lies as footage exposes murder of Gaza medics

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A video footage exposing the Israeli occupation forces' execution of 15 medics in Rafah emerged earlier this month, forcing "Israel" to backtrack on its fabricated narrative, claiming its lies were "unintentionally made". 

Further claims were made and later debunked by video evidence, including that the ambulances did not have their emergency light on and that the Israeli forces came under fire. The later Israeli military report claimed that the Israeli forces hid the bodies and the ambulances under the sand "to prevent them from being eaten by wild animals."

This procedure was unusual for their forces committing genocide and leaving bodies in the streets left and right for one and a half years intentionally, for them to be eaten by wild animals later on, which suggests that the IOF did it to hide evidence.

What actually happened

The New York Times obtained video retrieved from the cell phone of a Palestinian paramedic, whose body was discovered alongside 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in Gaza in late March, showing clearly marked ambulances and a fire truck with emergency lights activated as they came under heavy Israeli gunfire.

The Israeli military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, had denied that Israeli forces had "randomly" attacked an ambulance. He claimed that multiple vehicles had been seen "advancing suspiciously" without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting the shooting. He also claimed that nine of the individuals killed were Palestinian Resistance fighters.

However, a seven-minute video shot from inside a moving vehicle was recovered, depicting a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, all clearly marked and displaying both headlights and flashing emergency lights, driving southward on a road north of Rafah just after sunrise.

The convoy halts when it comes across a damaged ambulance on the roadside—an earlier vehicle sent to aid injured civilians had reportedly come under attack. The new rescue vehicles move to the side of the road. At least two uniformed rescue workers are seen exiting the fire truck and ambulance, both bearing the Red Crescent emblem, and approaching the damaged vehicle.

Suddenly, intense gunfire erupts. The barrage of bullets can be seen and heard striking the convoy. The footage shakes and then goes dark, though the audio continues for five minutes with unrelenting gunfire. A man’s voice is heard in Arabic noting the presence of Israeli soldiers.

The paramedic filming the attack is repeatedly heard reciting the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith typically spoken when facing death. He asks for forgiveness and expresses that he knows he is going to die.

“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose — to help people,” he says.

According to PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh, speaking from Ramallah, the paramedic who filmed the video was later found with a gunshot wound to the head in the mass grave. His identity has not been made public due to concerns for the safety of his family still living in Gaza, a UN diplomat confirmed.