Trending 
A Palestinian medic has described the horrifying moment Israeli forces opened fire on a rescue convoy in southern Gaza last month, killing 15 aid workers in what he, and many have called a deliberate and deadly ambush.
Mundhir Abed, a 45-year-old medic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, was the sole survivor of the March 23 assault near Rafah. The convoy, which included paramedics from both the Red Crescent and Gaza’s civil defence agency, had rushed to respond to a distress call following an Israeli air strike.
“I was terrified they would kill me,” Abed told AFP. He was in the first ambulance, accompanied by driver Mustafa al-Khawaja and fellow paramedic Ezzedine Shaat. Both men were killed when the ambulance came under heavy gunfire.
“As we reached the scene with sirens and lights on, Israeli soldiers opened fire directly at our vehicle,” he recalled. “I dropped to the floor in the back to protect myself. Then I heard nothing from my colleagues—just the sound of death.”
Abed said that after the shooting stopped, Israeli soldiers surrounded the ambulance and pulled him from the vehicle.
He was forced face down to the ground, stripped of his clothes, beaten with weapons, and interrogated. He briefly saw fellow paramedic Asaad al-Mansoura, also stripped and blindfolded. Mansoura has not been seen since and is still considered missing.
The incident has sparked outrage internationally and renewed scrutiny of the peril faced by aid workers operating in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have raged on relentlessly.
An Israeli military spokesperson claimed troops believed they were targeting “terrorists”. According to the military, the convoy was moving suspiciously in the dark without headlights. This led to what they described as “mistaken engagement.”
However, footage from a medic’s mobile phone, recovered by the Red Crescent, shows ambulances driving with headlights and emergency lights clearly visible—contradicting the army’s version of events.
Abed said that when a second civil defence team arrived to assist, it too came under fire.
After detaining him, Abed said soldiers ordered him to assist with their operation, dressing him in a vest and trousers and taking him to a group of displaced civilians. He was made to calm the group and separate men from women and children.
Muhammad al-Mughayyir, head of logistics at Gaza’s civil defence agency, said his team lost contact with responders minutes after they were deployed. The body of unit leader Anwar al-Attar was discovered on March 27, and the rest were found buried days later, some handcuffed and partially buried in sand.
Red Crescent president Younis al-Khatib has called for an international investigation, stating the victims were shot in the upper body with intent to kill.
Like many other similar incidents in the past, Israel’s military has reportedly launched an internal inquiry, ordered by army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.
But for Abed, the trauma is far from over. “It’s a day I will never forget because of the torment I witnessed and lived through,” he said.
