Israeli Military Says Its Troops Opened Fire at Rescue Vehicles in March After Identifying Them as Hamas Vehicles

Fifteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in three separate incidents in Rafah on March 23. The United Nations said they were medics and rescue staff.

A screenshot taken from a video published by the Palestinian Red Crescent and obtained from cellphone of killed paramedic, shows the last moments during the incident in which aid workers were killed in Israeli fire, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2025. Palestinian Red Crescent/Handout via Reuters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on April 20 that its troops opened fire on ambulances in a series of incidents in Gaza on March 23 under the impression that they posed a threat to the IDF, citing the Hamas terrorist group’s frequent use of such vehicles “to transport terrorists and weapons.”

The IDF stated that 15 Palestinians were killed in three separate shooting incidents in Gaza. Of those killed, it said, six were identified “in a retrospective examination” as Hamas terrorists.

In the first incident, the IDF said that its troops opened fire on a vehicle belonging to Hamas terrorists in the area, which put them on high alert for further potential threats.

The probe, citing supporting surveillance, found that a fire truck and ambulances stopped near the area where the troops were operating just an hour later, with passengers quickly disembarking.

The IDF said its soldiers shot the individuals under the impression that they posed “an immediate and tangible threat” after a deputy battalion commander mistakenly recognized the ambulances as Hamas vehicles and ordered them to open fire.

“Due to poor night visibility, the deputy commander did not initially recognize the vehicles as ambulances. Only later, after approaching the vehicles and scanning them, was it discovered that these were indeed rescue teams,” it stated.

The IDF said the incident occurred in a “hostile combat ... zone” and cited the complexity of “confronting Hamas’ repeated use of such infrastructure for terrorism, including using ambulances to transport terrorists and weapons.”

However, it found that there were “several professional failures” and “breaches of orders” during the incident. It said that in the third incident, Israeli forces fired on a United Nations vehicle because of “operational errors.”

Following the investigation, the commanding officer was reprimanded and the deputy commander was dismissed for providing “an incomplete and inaccurate report” about the incident.

The IDF said it “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians” and said that it will ensure the reinforcement of existing protocols in areas where rescue teams are present, “even in high-intensity combat zones.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on March 30 that its rescue team has recovered the bodies of 15 Palestinians, who it claimed were medics and rescue workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS), the Palestine Civil Defense, and the U.N.

“They were here to save lives. Instead, they ended up in a mass grave,” Jonathan Whittall, head of OCHA in the region, said in a March 30 statement. “It’s absolute horror what has happened here. This should never happen, healthcare workers should never be a target.”

Whittall alleged that Israeli forces used a bulldozer to bury the victims’ bodies along with their vehicles in a mass grave.

In its statement, the IDF said its field commanders buried the victims’ bodies to prevent further harm and removed the ambulances to clear the route for civilian evacuations.

It said the decision to crush the vehicles was wrong but that there was no attempt to conceal the shootings, noting that it had spoken with the U.N. about the removal of bodies.

Footage of Incident

Israeli veterans’ group Breaking the Silence has rejected the IDF investigation, saying that it was “riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing, and selective details.”

“We all remember when the IDF claimed that the ambulances emergency lights weren’t on—and then we saw the footage proving otherwise,” it stated on social media platform X.

The group was referring to footage recovered from the cellphone of one of the victims and released by the PRCS, which shows the final moments of the crew as they headed to the site of the attack in clearly marked ambulances with their emergency lights on. The crew appeared to be pulling up to assist another ambulance that had been targeted in the area before coming under fire themselves.

That footage contradicted the IDF’s initial report on April 2, which stated that the vehicles were moving toward the area “without headlights or emergency signals,” prompting soldiers to open fire.

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on April 20 that initial reports were based on “real-time updates from the forces on the ground.”

He said that the IDF later conducted a debrief, separate from the chain of command involved in the incident, which found the initial report to be faulty.

“There was never any intention to mislead or deceive the public or media. We have learned from this, implemented our lessons, and held those accountable responsible—both of the incident and the faulty report,” he stated in a post on X.

PRCS stated on April 13 that it had been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that one of its medics, Assad Al-Nsasrah—who went missing following the March 23 incident—is currently being held by Israeli authorities and called on the international community to push for his immediate release.

Gaza has been at war since Hamas launched a surprise assault on Southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 captive back to Gaza.

The death toll in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, has risen to about 51,000 as of April, although the numbers do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, and they are contested. The Epoch Times is unable to verify the total.

Israel and Hamas entered into a six-week cease-fire deal on Jan. 19, during which thousands of prisoners were released by Israel in exchange for the release of hostages. The fighting resumed in March after negotiations stalled between the two sides.