The PRCS announced the discovery of the bodies on Sunday after an Israeli attack in Rafah, southern Gaza. This came days after the Palestinian Civil Defense reported recovering the body of one of its team members.
A Geneva-based human rights group has said the international community “must hold” Israeli officials and other individuals accountable for “the deliberate killing” of 15 paramedics and first responders from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and Civil Defence. An UNRWA employee was also among those killed.
“This killing is part of Israel’s widespread and systematic attacks on humanitarian, medical, and UN workers, all of whom are protected by international law,” the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in its latest report on Tuesday.
Mass execution of paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza
Israeli forces ambushed & executed 15 rescue workers, then buried them in a mass grave. A deliberate massacre. A war crime.
A thread on what happened
pic.twitter.com/eJCPxwlW7Y
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) April 2, 2025
According to field evidence, the report stated, Israeli forces killed eight Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, five Civil Defence personnel, and one UNRWA employee; “all were on duty at the time of their targeting.”
‘Mass Execution’
The PRCS announced the discovery of the bodies on Sunday after an Israeli attack in Rafah, southern Gaza. This came days after the Palestinian Civil Defense reported recovering the body of one of its team members who was killed by Israeli forces, raising the death toll from the attack to 15.
“The crime has been referred to as ‘the largest mass execution of humanitarian workers in the history of modern warfare,’” Euro-Med Monitor said.
Their killings followed “the total destruction of the workers’ vehicles, the majority of their bodies were subsequently interred in a deep pit that was then filled with sand. “
“This horrifying scene serves as further evidence of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and is a major crime that is a serious breach of international humanitarian law,” the organization stated.
‘Strict Security Cordon’
According to the report, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance left Rafah’s Hashash neighbourhood early on Sunday, March 23, to evacuate injured individuals who had been hit in Israeli attacks.
The medics inside the ambulance, however, suffered injuries themselves as a result of intense fire from Israeli occupation forces. As the situation worsened, three more ambulances were sent to evacuate the injured, including the medics.
Israel’s execution of 15 medical personnel is unprecedented in recent history; crime demands immediate accountability https://t.co/dlc4i9z3Nb
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) April 1, 2025
“The area was then abruptly surrounded by a strict security cordon by the occupation forces,” which had since “cut off all communication with medical personnel,” the report noted.
That same day, a Civil Defence rescue team in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood received urgent calls to travel to al-Hashash area.
The calls indicated that Israeli occupation forces had unexpectedly invaded the area, killing and injuring dozens of people and trapping medical personnel. Though the call was answered by a team of six Civil Defence personnel, “communication with the team was lost shortly after they left to do their job.”
One of the crew members “was severely beaten” by the Israeli forces and then released that evening.
“The rest—the UNRWA employee, five Civil Defence personnel, and eight Red Crescent paramedics—were killed,” the report said.
Vehicles ‘Charred’
Additional ambulance and Civil Defence crews were able to reach the scene on Friday, March 28, following international coordination, and “discovered the mission leader, Civil Defence officer Anwar Abdul Hamid al-Attar, dead, with his body shredded.”
The rescue crews that arrived on Friday “also found all of the Red Crescent vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances completely reduced to charred metal.”
“As soon as the incident occurred, we entered the site west of Rafah with OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) crews, “Sufyan Ahmed, a member of the Civil Defence team involved in efforts to recover the bodies, said in a statement to Euro-Med Monitor.
UN OCHA releases new footage: Israeli forces detained, handcuffed & executed Palestinian Red Crescent medics, Civil Defense teams & a UN staff member in Rafah—then dumped their bodies into a mass grave. @UNOCHA @UN @PalestineRCS
Another documented Israeli crime. How long… pic.twitter.com/gzknGS8xlA
— Sahat English
(@sahatenglish) March 31, 2025
“The Israeli army told OCHA that the bodies of the victims were found next to a fire truck and an electrical pole,” he continued.
“Using a small bulldozer, we started our excavation at the spot the army had designated. One body was discovered. After examining it, it was determined to be the body of the mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid al-Attar,” Ahmed added.
He explained that the OCHA was used to get in touch with the Israeli army and enquire about the whereabouts of the other bodies.
“They replied that the bodies were in the same hole from which we had taken al-Attar’s body, next to the electrical pole. We dug deeper into the hole and kept looking, but we could not find anything,” he continued, adding that the Israeli army had given them a limited amount of time at the site, forcing them to leave.
Bodies’ Location
The following day, the crew returned and awaited approval from the army to enter. After about five hours of waiting, they were told that entry was refused.
They returned the next day and were again denied permission.
“After a few days of waiting, we received approval yesterday, Sunday … We were told that the army would stay with us until they told us where the bodies were interred so that we could start the excavation process,” Ahmed explained.
14 bodies of the paramedics and civil defence members who went to rescue them have arrived at Nasser Medical Complex. The IOF executed them all in Rafah 8 days ago. War crimes. This is Zionism. This is evil. This is barbarity. pic.twitter.com/HyYbwXOAnW
— Dr Rahmeh
When the crew arrived at the stie, “a quadcopter was flying overhead, showing us where the bodies were buried.”
“We received a sign pointing to the graveyard from the drone. We were shocked to learn that the designated site was far from the one where we had previously been informed the bodies were interred. At that moment, we recognised that they had been attempting to delay, procrastinate, and waste our time the first [few days],” he explained.
“We started digging right away, discovered a body, and recovered it. We dug out another body that we found underneath. We then found a third body underneath. We dug further until all of the Red Crescent and Civil Defence personnel’s bodies were found in the same hole,” Ahmed said.
The body of an UNRWA employee “was the only one still missing,” but were advised that its location was close to the barracks area, west of Rafah.
“The bodies had distinct features, but they were in the early stages of decomposition. When they were examined, it was evident that a barrage of bullets had struck them,” he explained.
Bound and Shot
Ahmed noted that “Based on my observations, the injuries were located in the chest region. A closer look revealed that some of the victims had still been alive despite their injuries—they were apparently buried alive with their feet bound.
Among the bodies observed was that of Ibrahim al-Maghari that “was covered in severe bruises and showed evidence of torture, and his legs seemed bound.”
“After being shot in the back of the head, his face was completely ripped apart. Regarding Fouad al-Jamal’s body, he was shot in the head from a very close distance, causing his skull to shatter,[giving the appearance of] crushed bones.
There must be an independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances in which at least 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers, who went to southern Gaza for a rescue operation, were shot dead after Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicles https://t.co/xnTuV31YCZ
— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) April 1, 2025
“We discovered that every employee of the Palestinian Red Crescent had been shot in the left and right sides of the head,” he stated.
After getting permission from the Israeli army, the crew “removed the bodies with immense grief and suffering, moved them to ambulances, and left the site for the hospital.”
Ahmed said that the crew had witnessed “bags, blankets, clothing, and other items belonging to thousands of citizens who had been displaced that day,” when they first arrived at the scent.
“However, these items were absent when we returned to the site a few days later, indicating that the incident site had been altered and tampered with,” he said.
The crew was joined by a Red Cross delegation and a forensic physician “with expertise in autopsies when the bodies were recovered.”
They were also joined by documentation experts, as well as a delegation from UNRWA and OCHA.
“All of them observed the process of recovery,” he said.
‘Tortured and Killed’
Another Civil Defence crew’s testimony, cited by Euro-Med Monitor, claimed that the victims “were cruelly tortured and killed” by the occupation forces.
The body of one Civil Defence member “was wearing handcuffs, while others were discovered in a state of partial undress, and additional victims were found to have suffered from extreme torture that led to their deaths, such as having more than 20 bullets fired into their chest.”
Today, @PalestineRCS recovered the bodies of 8 of its medics in Rafah, along with 6 civil defence staff and one UN staffer. The Gaza Ministry of Health says “some of these bodies were bound and shot in the chest. They were buried in a deep hole to prevent their identification.” pic.twitter.com/oqhFGRKhP9
— GazaMedicVoices (@GazaMedicVoices) March 30, 2025
Most of the victims’ bodies were discovered in a mass grave that was two to three metres deep, said the report, “suggesting that Israeli soldiers forced the victims out of their cars, killed them in cold blood, and then buried them to hide any evidence of the crime.”
“The crime is just one of a string of intentional assaults that have been directed at humanitarian and medical workers since 7 October 2023,” Euro-Med Monitor said.
Staggering Death Toll
Since then, Israel has killed “over 1,400 medical personnel, 27 Red Crescent paramedics, and 111 Civil Defence personnel as part of a systematic campaign to destroy the Gaza Strip’s health and relief infrastructure to kill Palestinians, while simultaneously aiming to destroy their means of subsistence as well.”
The Geneva Conventions, which protect medical personnel, relief and humanitarian workers, and United Nations personnel, “are gravely violated by this heinous crime, which also blatantly violates international humanitarian law,” Euro-Med Monitor said.
It urged the international community to take prompt legal action “and hold Israel and its allies accountable, as Israel is clearly attempting to eradicate the Strip’s Palestinian population, either by killing them directly or by destroying the institutions that support their existence—the gravest possible crimes.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
So, everything that was blamed on Hamas was actually done by ” Israel ” . Beheaded babies destroyed by bombs blowing them to pieces. The rape of Palestinian prisoners by the homo prison guards. The slaughter of entire families. The use of human shields, by the IDF. All of it was done by the Israelis, not the Palestinians. History needs to be rewritten to correct those lies told by the scummy Israelis.
The IDF have sown the wind – they will reap the whirlwind.