al Jazeera:

Israel releases 'Gaza medics killing' probe, bombs ‘safe-zone’

By Nils Adler, Federica Marsi and Brian Osgood

Published On 20 Apr 202520 Apr 2025

• An Israeli probe into the killing of 15 Gaza medics and aid workers by its military finds that ‘errors’ were made, but denies a cover-up – despite admitting that ambulances were crushed and buried.
• Israeli forces have killed at least 29 people since dawn on Sunday, spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency has told AFP new agency.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to intensify the war on Gaza after Hamas rejects an Israeli proposal for a temporary truce. The Palestinian group demands a deal to end the war in exchange for the release of remaining captives.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 51,201 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 116,869 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since it began 18 months ago.
• The Gaza Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

What we know about Israel’s killing of Palestinian paramedics

Israeli authorities initially claimed that the convoy of Palestinian ambulances and emergency vehicles were unclearly marked and had been advancing “suspiciously” when they were fired upon.

But The New York Times later obtained footage showing the final moments of the medics that strongly contradicted the Israeli version of events, showing the vehicles clearly marked with flashing lights coming under sustained gunfire for about five minutes.

Eight Palestinian Red Crescent personnel were killed, along with six Civil Defense workers and a UN staffer. Israeli forces bulldozed the bodies and the vehicles and buried them in a mass grave.

The incident caused a global outrage and brought spotlight on the conduct of Israeli forces in Gaza during its 18 months of devastating war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant face an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the International Court of Justice, known as the world court, is hearing genocide case against Israel.

The Israeli military only acknowledged ‘professional failure’ after video emerged of the attack

• 
  Tareq Abu Azzoum

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip

On the 23rd of March, 2025, the Israeli military killed 15 Palestinian emergency workers in the al-Hashaashin area in the western side of Rafah city.

The Israeli military claimed that the vehicles were moving suspiciously and without using flashing lights or markings showing they were emergency responders.

Later on, the bodies and the vehicles were put in a mass grave that was discovered a week later.

The Israeli military claimed that these vehicles were used by Hamas’s operatives, but later, following the circulation of a video [The New York Times], the Israeli military acknowledged that it was a sort of professional failure and breaches of orders…

The bodies that have been extracted from the mass grave have shown signs of execution made at close range. [Though Israel in its report denied the medics were executed]

International organisations have widely condemned the attack, calling to protect those who are working in the medical field, as they are doing nothing but their humanitarian work.

People mourn as civil defence and Palestinian Red Crescent members who were killed in the attack are brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on March 30 [Abdallah F.S. Alattar/Anadolu]