Deadly fire on Gaza ambulances possible Israeli ‘war crimes’: UN official

First responders embrace each other at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip as the bodies of 15 Red Crescent workers who were killed a week before in Israeli military fire on ambulances arrive at the facility. Photo / AFP

• Fifteen medics and humanitarian workers were killed in Gaza, raising concerns of war crimes.
• Volker Turk called for an independent investigation into the March 23 incident involving Israeli forces.
• The UN condemned Israel for blocking aid to Gaza, citing potential collective punishment and starvation.

The death of 15 medics and humanitarian workers in Gaza after shots were fired at their ambulances raises further concerns of “war crimes by the Israeli army,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said today.

Volker Turk told the UN Security Council he was “appalled” by the recent killing of the 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raised “further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military”.

He called for an “independent, prompt and thorough investigation” into the March 23 incident that Israeli officials have claimed was an attack on “terrorists”.

The 15 bodies, including eight from the Palestinian Red Crescent and one from the UN, were found near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) called a “mass grave”.

Ocha said this week the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and other emergency and aid teams were struck one after another for several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues.

This is “one of the darkest moments in this conflict that has shaken our shared humanity to its core,” Palestinian Red Crescent Society President Younes Al-Khatib told the UN Security Council today.

“The souls of Mostafa, Ezzedine, Saleh, Riffat, Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed al-heila, Ashraf and Raed are asking for justice. Can you hear them?” he asked, demanding to know the fate of a 16th team member still missing.

“It’s worth noting, also, that during the communication with the team, the dispatch could hear a conversation in Hebrew between the Israeli forces and the team, meaning some were alive, still alive, when they were under the control of the Israeli forces,” Al-Khatib said.

The Israeli Army has indicated it is investigating the “incident of March 23, 2025,” while claiming its soldiers had fired at “terrorists”.

Turk also condemned Israel for blocking the entry of humanitarian aid for a month and resuming its military operations, saying “the blockade and siege of Gaza,” and the subsequent suffering of civilians, constitutes a form of collective punishment”.

It “may also amount to the use of starvation as a method of war,” he said.

Turk expressed alarm over “inflammatory statements by senior Israeli officials about seizing, dividing, and controlling the territory of the Gaza Strip”.

“All of this raises serious concerns about international crimes being committed and contradicts the fundamental principle of international law regarding acquisition of territory by force,” he said.

- Agence France-Presse