DayofPal– A forensic specialist who examined the remains of Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza has suggested that some of the victims were executed at close range, based on the precision and intent of their fatal gunshot wounds.
The massacre, which claimed the lives of 15 humanitarian workers, including personnel from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Palestinian Civil Defense, and a United Nations relief agency, occurred on the morning of March 23 as they attempted to retrieve dead and wounded civilians near the southern city of Rafah.
According to the UN, the victims were subsequently buried in the sand by a bulldozer alongside their wrecked vehicles.
Dr. Ahmad Dhaher, a forensic consultant who examined five of the exhumed bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that all had died from gunshot wounds.
“Each case bore evidence of multiple gunshots, except one, which was so severely mutilated by scavenging animals that only skeletal remains remained,” he told The Guardian.
“Preliminary findings strongly suggest execution-style killings,” Dhaher added, noting that the placement of wounds was deliberate.
“One victim was shot in the head, another in the heart, while a third sustained six or seven gunshots to the torso. Most of the bullets in other cases targeted the joints, the shoulders, elbows, ankles, or wrists.”
While Dhaher acknowledged that decomposition limited the certainty of conclusions, two eyewitnesses who participated in the recovery of the bodies reported seeing some with their hands and legs bound, indicating possible detainment prior to their deaths.
A spokesperson for the Red Crescent, Nebal Farsakh, corroborated these accounts, revealing that one paramedic had been discovered with his hands and legs tied together. However, Dhaher stated that he found no definitive evidence of restraints on the five bodies he personally examined due to their advanced decomposition.
The Israeli army and the Netanyahu administration defended the attack, asserting that Israeli troops fired upon the convoy because the ambulances were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.
Israeli officials further claimed the attack had neutralized resistance fighter, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, along with “eight other fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
However, Shubaki’s remains were not among those recovered from the mass grave. Instead, all 15 victims were identified as humanitarian workers: eight affiliated with the Red Crescent, six with Palestinian Civil Defense, and one with the UN relief agency UNRWA.
The Israeli army has yet to respond to inquiries about why the deceased were buried alongside their vehicles or to allegations that some had been bound prior to their execution.
Munther Abed, the sole survivor of the attack and a Red Crescent volunteer, refuted the Israeli narrative, insisting that the ambulances had been operating in strict compliance with safety protocols.
“During both day and night operations, our ambulances remain fully illuminated, inside and out. It was clear that we were humanitarian workers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One. “All our lights were on until we were directly fired upon. There were no militants in our convoy.”
Abed was traveling in the first ambulance that came under attack. He survived by throwing himself to the floor of the vehicle as Israeli gunfire tore through the front cabin, instantly killing the two paramedics seated there. He was later detained and interrogated by Israeli forces before being released.
The remaining 13 victims were in a five-vehicle convoy dispatched hours later to recover the bodies of the slain paramedics. They, too, were shot dead and buried in the same mass grave.
A previous Guardian investigation published in February revealed that over 1,000 medical personnel had been killed across Gaza from the onset of the wat on October 7, 2023. Numerous hospitals have been reduced to rubble in what a UN Human Rights Council commission has classified as potential war crimes.
The targeted killings of aid workers have ignited international condemnation and calls for accountability. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy labeled Gaza “the deadliest place on Earth for humanitarian workers,” stressing that “those responsible must be held accountable.”
Since terminating the two-month ceasefire, Israel has intensified its military campaign against the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that the offensive was expanding to “seize extensive territory” in Gaza, while Netanyahu confirmed plans to construct a new security corridor to further divide the enclave.
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