Translated by Irene Cecchi
The International Criminal Court, in Article 8(2)(b)(iii) of the Rome Statute and the Elements of Crime document, defines as a war crime any attack against personnel or objects involved in a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission. For an attack to fall into this category, it must target “personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission” and “the perpetrator must intend” to attack them, being aware of the factual circumstances enabling the assistance, in the context of an international armed conflict.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, through its head Yunis Al Khatib, believes that based on these reasons, the killing of eight of its paramedics near Rafah —found dead a week after going missing on March 23, along with six civil defense members and a United Nations employee— can be defined as a “war crime” committed by Israel. A ninth paramedic remains missing. The humanitarian delegation had been dispatched to assist civilians injured in Israeli attacks in Rafah, southern Gaza, but had disappeared. A second convoy sent to locate the missing workers also vanished. Their recovery was delayed by a five-day negotiation with Israel to allow safe passage for the United Nations and the Red Crescent.
The UN quickly declared its belief that this was a deliberate killing. Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN's office for the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned the incident on X, saying:
“They were killed in their uniforms. Driving clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened.”
Al Khatib’s statement, delivered on April 7 at the Red Crescent’s headquarters in Ramallah in front of journalists, activists and a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, is based on autopsy results from the bodies found in a mass grave: before being buried, many of the men had been shot in the upper body, head or torso. Witnesses at the site reported signs suggesting the victims had been tied.
The autopsy on five of the victims was conducted by Ahmad Dhair, a forensic doctor at Nasser Hospital (Khan Younis), who confirmed that the gunshots were precise, intentional and delivered at close range, indicating a likely execution. Alongside the bodies —buried in sand and partially riddled with bullets— there were damaged ambulances and a vehicle marked with the United Nations logo.
The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) initially denied the accusations from the UN, claiming that Israeli troops had not unjustifiably targeted an ambulance, but rather that on the night of the 23rd, a series of “unidentified, unlit vehicles” were advancing suspiciously toward Israeli forces, prompting them to open fire. According to the IDF, among the dead were Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had used medical vehicles and equipment to disguise themselves. But this version quickly unraveled.
Not because of the internal contradiction between the claim that the vehicles were “unidentified” and the assertion that they were using “medical equipment” nor due to the recovery of clearly marked vehicles, which undermined that narrative.
On April 5, the phone of one of the recovered paramedics revealed a video recorded just before the attack — nearly seven minutes of footage: it shows vehicles with lights on and Red Crescent symbols illuminated, approaching the side of a road. A man in a reflective rescue uniform steps out of an ambulance; the filming paramedic also steps out and after taking just a few steps, gunfire erupts. The shots continue for five minutes, interspersed with the man's prayers, his only response to the Israeli fire.
The New York Times obtained and released the video. Pressured internationally but without changing its version of events, the IDF announced an investigation: “Preliminary findings show the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area and that six of those killed in the incident have been identified as Hamas terrorists”. It is important to note that this investigation is internal, conducted by the Israeli military’s own chief of staff.
The video is not the only evidence of the attack: Munter Abhed survived. A 27-year-old paramedic, he was part of the first convoy to Rafah, the one initially stopped by Israeli gunfire, in which the other workers were killed. Abhed, however, was beaten, stripped, tied up and interrogated; even with his face on the ground, he was able to see some of what happened. He claims he also saw the still-missing paramedic, alive and captured by Israeli forces during the assault. He witnessed the arrival of the second convoy and its execution. Before being released, he also saw the mass deployment of troops digging a pit to bury the bodies — a practice reportedly used to prevent corpses from decomposing in the streets and being attacked by animals. The same care, however, was not given to the vehicles.
We should remember —through numbers that, while impersonal, take on significance due to their scale— that since the start of this phase of Israeli attacks on Gaza, 409 Palestinian humanitarian workers have been killed (OCHA data). International law is supposed to protect them, not target them. The same applies to journalists, 198 of whom have been killed (Palestinian Journalist Syndicate data), the most recent being Hilmi al-Faqaawi, who died two days ago after a strike hit a tent used by Palestine Today journalists.
In the words of Munter Abhed: “It is no longer surprising when someone is killed. Anyone can become a target as we are dealing with an occupying force that disregards laws and international treaties. Every mission, we believe, could always be the last”. To this, we add the final words of the paramedic who recorded the ambulance attack: “This is the path I chose—to help people. Allahu akbar”.
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