A newly surfaced video has shed damning light on one of the most harrowing incidents of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza: the deliberate killing of 15 emergency workers by Israeli forces in Rafah.
The footage, obtained by The New York Times and captured on one of the medic's phones, directly contradicts Israeli military claims and has reignited accusations of war crimes and systematic targeting of health services.
A repeated pattern of denial
On 29 January 2024, six-year-old Hind Rajab was fleeing Tel al-Hawa in a car with relatives after Israeli forces issued evacuation orders. As they attempted to leave, Israeli tanks opened fire on the vehicle, killing everyone except Hind, who remained trapped, alone and terrified, in the car surrounded by her dead relatives.
Hind managed to speak with the Palestinian Red Crescent via phone. In response, two medics were dispatched to rescue her. Both were later found dead alongside Hind, killed by Israeli forces. Their bodies were not recovered until 12 days later, partially decomposed.
At the time, the Israeli military claimed to have launched an internal investigation and asserted that no Israeli units were present in the area. But a UN expert panel later revealed in July 2024 that forensic analysis of the scene provided "overwhelming evidence" that the car was visible to Israeli tanks and struck at close range using weapons attributed solely to the Israeli army.
This incident echoes a wider pattern, observed repeatedly since Israel's assault on Gaza began on 7 October 2023: initial denial followed by mounting evidence of deliberate attacks on civilians.
This pattern was repeated again in Rafah on 23 March, when 15 emergency responders were killed while attempting to carry out their duties.
For days, Israel denied responsibility for what has become known as the Rafah medic massacre, claiming the convoy had moved suspiciously without headlights or flashing emergency lights and suggesting that nine of the victims were armed members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
That narrative unravelled when The New York Times published a seven-minute video recorded by one of the slain medics.
The footage shows a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck - clearly marked and with emergency lights on - driving southward near Rafah in the early morning. The convoy halts after encountering another ambulance that had gone off-road, presumably while aiding earlier casualties.
In the video, at least two medics in official uniforms exit the vehicles to approach the stranded ambulance.
Moments later, heavy gunfire erupts, lasting five minutes. Screams are heard in Arabic and Hebrew.
One medic, aware that he was facing imminent death, begins to recite a final prayer known as the Shahada.
"Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose to help people. God is great, God is great," he could be hearing saying.
His body, later found in a mass grave, had a bullet wound to the head.
It took five days before the United Nations and the Red Crescent negotiated a safe corridor to retrieve the dead. When found, the remains of the medics lay buried beside destroyed ambulances and a vehicle bearing a UN logo in a makeshift grave.
Cover-up attempt
Satellite images corroborate the timeline of events. Hours after the disappearance of the convoy, satellite surveillance recorded the presence of the vehicles at the attack site.
Another image from two days later showed the ambulances and fire truck had been removed, and later, buried.
Three Israeli military bulldozers and a digger were visible in the frame, alongside earthen barricades blocking access to the site - an apparent attempt to conceal the crime.
Bakr Turkman, investigations officer at the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza, emphasised that the footage had offered undeniable proof of the Israeli military's targeting of civil defence personnel.
He described the attack as a war crime and a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, which afford protections to medics and rescue workers in conflict zones.
"This is not an isolated incident," al-Turkumani told The New Arab's Arabic language edition. "We have documented numerous executions of civilians and medics, with no combat engagement or security threat involved. This pattern of targeted killings reinforces the argument that these are not rogue actions, but part of a deliberate policy - possibly crimes against humanity."
He added that the video evidence, backed by testimonies, medical reports, and photographic documentation, could serve as a key file in legal proceedings at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in countries with universal jurisdiction laws.
Mohamad al-Moghabat, regional director for the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said the massacre of medics reflects Israel's "strategic dismantling" of Gaza's health and emergency infrastructure.
"This is not the first execution of protected civilians under international law," Moghabat told TNA's Arabic language edition. "We've documented dozens of similar cases, where Israeli forces executed civilians - including displaced persons - during home raids and at military checkpoints."
He added that from the outset of its military campaign, Israel had deliberately targeted hospitals and health services "with the intent to exterminate Gaza's life-saving institutions", thereby escalating its campaign of "forced displacement and civilian annihilation".
The Palestinian Red Crescent presented the video to the UN Security Council in a press conference on Friday, calling for a transparent international investigation and for justice for the murdered medics.
On the same day, the Gaza Government Media Office released a statement condemning the attack as an "unprecedented and barbaric execution" of civil defence and medical personnel.
It urged the international community to dispatch independent fact-finding missions to investigate mass graves and to hold Israel accountable for systemic war crimes and what it described as an ongoing genocide.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese also weighed in. In a statement on X, she said: "This is not a war. This is genocide." She accused Israel of systematically hiding evidence of its crimes and urged a global reckoning with Western complicity.
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