CAIRO — The Palestine Red Crescent Society on Monday gave new details of the Israeli attack on its paramedics and other emergency responders in the Gaza Strip that killed at least 15 people last month, saying Israeli forces had targeted them in a “series of deliberate attacks.”

Speaking at a news conference in the West Bank, Red Crescent officials said Israeli troops shot at the rescue workers in waves over a two-hour period before dawn March 23. They termed the killings “a full-fledged war crime” and called on the United Nations Security Council and the international community to demand accountability and an independent investigation.

The Israeli military, which has admitted to killing the 15 men, said Monday that a “preliminary inquiry indicated that the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area,” and it would continue investigating. It said that six of those killed “were identified as Hamas terrorists,” but cited no evidence.

The Red Crescent and the United Nations have said that the dead were unarmed aid workers who posed no threat. They said the men were wearing their uniforms and riding in clearly marked emergency vehicles, flashing their emergency lights.

An Israeli military official who briefed reporters on the incident Saturday declined to say whether the men were armed.

The killing of rescue workers followed an airstrike on a home in the al-Hashasheen area of southern Gaza. A Red Crescent ambulance responded and was hit by Israeli gunfire, according to the aid group.

When a convoy of emergency vehicles arrived to rescue the first ambulance, Israeli troops fired again, in a five-minute-long barrage.

The attack on the convoy was captured in a video the Red Crescent said was later discovered on the cellphone of one of the paramedics who was killed.

Red Crescent officials released a 19-minute version of the video Monday, showing worried paramedics, moments before they were shot, searching for their missing co-workers.

The men’s bodies were found a week later, when, after repeated requests, the United Nations and the Red Crescent secured permission from the Israeli military to search for them. On Monday, the Red Crescent said that all but one of the bodies were discovered piled together in a black mesh bag and buried “in a brutal and degrading manner that violates human dignity.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Vivian Yee and Fatima Abdulkarim
c. 2025 The New York Times Company