IDF rejects UN claim its soldiers ‘targeted emergency responders’ after recovery of 15 bodies in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday rejected claims made by the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), which accused Israel of targeting and killing aid workers in Gaza, after the bodies of 15 people were recovered on Sunday. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society accused the IDF of killing the workers “in cold blood”, saying that the workers and the vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian aid personnel. 

Among the dead were eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency unit, and an employee of UNRWA. 

The emergency teams were first reported missing on March 23, following an IDF evacuation instruction for the Tel al-Sultan district of the southern city of Rafah. 

“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March,” the UN said in a statement released on Sunday night. 

The Gaza Civil Defense organization reported receiving alerts from Palestinian residents who had not evacuated and who reported having been injured by Israeli fire. It also said that a team dispatched to rescue the residents was “surrounded by Israeli troops.” 

The UN said its teams were able to go and recover the bodies on Sunday, after the IDF informed them of the location where the bodies had been buried.

In a video released by the UN, workers from PRCS and Civil Defense, wearing masks and bright orange vests, can be seen digging through hills of dirt that appeared to have been piled up by Israeli bulldozers. 

Several heavily damaged vehicles are also seen in the video, including some that are clearly labeled as ambulances. 

“ #Gaza: devastating to confirm the deaths of two additional UNRWA colleagues and 8 Palestinian Red Crescent aid workers & first responders.

This brings the death toll of aid workers killed to 408 among them more than 280 UNRWA staff since the war began 1.5 years ago.

The body… pic.twitter.com/cxVQKTtp8R

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 31, 2025

IDF international spokesman Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani rebutted the claims that the IDF deliberately targeted aid workers, saying the military fired on vehicles that approached in a suspicious manner, and that at least nine terrorists were among those killed.

“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles. Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route,” Shoshani wrote to 𝕏. 

The IDF did 𝗻𝗼𝘁 randomly attack an ambulance on March 23. Let me walk through what happened step-by-step:

1. Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then… https://t.co/VdtyXd8qj5

— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) March 31, 2025

Shoshani also noted that among the dead were “a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with 8 other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.” 

“It’s truly not surprising that terrorists are once again exploiting medical facilities and equipment for their activities,” Shoshani noted. 

The UN and the Palestinian aid organizations have accused Israel of targeting aid workers multiple times since the beginning of the Gaza War. For its part, the Israeli military has released video and photo evidence of Hamas terrorists using ambulances to transport fighters between locations in the Gaza Strip, in order to avoid being targeted by the IDF. 

The Israeli military also released testimony from captured fighters who admitted that hospitals and ambulances are regularly used by the terror operatives due to their internationally protected status. However, international law prohibits the use of medical, religious, and educational facilities for military purposes.

If used for such illegitimate purposes, the facilities, including vehicles, can lose their protected status and become legitimate military targets.