U.N. Accuses Israel of Killing 15 Rescue Workers in Gaza

The United Nations said Israeli forces killed the people as they were trying to aid injured civilians, then buried them in a mass grave. Israel said nine of the 15 dead were Palestinian militants.

U.N. Accuses Israel of Killing 5 Rescue Workers in Gaza - The New York Times

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U.N. Accuses Israel of Killing 5 Rescue Workers in Gaza

The United Nations said Israeli forces killed the people as they were trying to aid injured civilians, then buried them in a mass grave. Israel said nine of the 5 dead were Palestinian militants.

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The funeral for people who were killed in Gaza last month, marked by the logo of the Palestinian Red Crescent aid group in Khan Younis, on Monday.Credit...Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Vivian Yee and Farnaz Fassihi
Vivian Yee reported from Cairo, and Farnaz Fassihi from the United Nations.

April , 2025
As Israeli forces advanced on the southern Gaza city of Rafah before dawn last Sunday, an ambulance crew set out to evacuate civilians wounded by Israeli shelling. But the ambulance and its crew were hit on the way.
Several more ambulances and a fire truck headed to the scene over the next few hours to rescue them, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, as did a U.N. vehicle, the United Nations said. Seventeen people were dispatched in total.
Then they all went silent.
It took five days for the United Nations and Red Crescent to negotiate with the Israeli military for safe passage to search for the missing people. After receiving clearance, U.N. officials said, the retrieval team found 5 dead, most of their bodies dumped in a mass grave.
On Sunday, the United Nations said Israel had killed them — a rare accusation by the organization, which is typically cautious about assigning clear blame.

“They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives,” the U.N. humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said on X. “We demand answers amp justice.”
The Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations said all of those killed were humanitarian workers who should never have come under attack. The Red Crescent called the killings a war crime and demanded accountability.
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