Watan-The Palestinian Civil Defense has revealed details of the field execution of 14 members of its rescue and ambulance teams who, several days ago, had gone to aid besieged residents in western Rafah and were attacked by the Israeli military.
In a statement, the Civil Defense reported that Gaza witnessed a “horrific massacre” that shocked the humanitarian world—perpetrated by the Israeli army—claiming the lives of six Civil Defense team members and nine from the Palestinian Red Crescent in Rafah.
UN teams that managed to access the western area of Rafah recovered the bodies of the rescue team, who were executed by the Israeli military after being stopped, shot at, and buried on-site.
Rescue Teams Targeted During Humanitarian Mission in Rafah
According to the Civil Defense, on Sunday, March 23 at around 5:20 a.m., its team, accompanied by a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crew, headed to the Tel Al-Sultan area in response to calls for help from citizens trapped in the “UNRWA warehouses” area—amid intense and random Israeli shelling on homes and streets during an unannounced military incursion.
The teams arrived wearing their internationally recognized orange uniforms and vests. They were traveling in a firetruck and two ambulances, all clearly marked with international civil defense symbols. These vehicles had been previously tagged with identifying codes coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross and shared with the Israeli side through the ICRC.
“Despite all this,” the Civil Defense stated, “none of it spared our team and the Red Crescent team from the crime.” It continued: “The Israeli army executed them in cold blood, in an act of vile arrogance and brutality, in blatant violation of all humanitarian and international human rights laws.”
The Civil Defense clarified that the mission was a purely humanitarian response to urgent calls from civilians. Contact with the team was lost about ten minutes after they entered the area, and their fate remained unknown for eight days. During that time, extensive coordination efforts were made with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross to reach the area. “But each time, the Israeli army refused, claiming it was a closed military zone, while we continued to receive reports and eyewitness accounts that the Israeli army had executed them in that area,” the statement read.
Evidence of Execution Raises Calls for War Crimes Probe in Rafah
The bodies were found buried approximately 200 meters from their destroyed vehicles. Some were handcuffed, with gunshot wounds clearly visible in the chest and head. One team member was found decapitated, while others were disfigured or had limbs severed.
The statement confirmed that only the mission team was aboard the vehicles, all of whom were Civil Defense personnel, and their sole task was to respond to humanitarian calls for help. It emphasized that the Israeli military had committed an act of genocide against their teams, leading to their deaths and the destruction of the only Civil Defense ambulance and firetruck in Rafah’s Tel Al-Sultan area.
The Civil Defense stressed that this atrocity against humanitarian workers amounts to “war crimes and acts of genocide,” and called on the free world and international humanitarian and human rights organizations to move beyond condemnation and exert real pressure on Israel to uphold international humanitarian law. It also called for the formation of an international investigation committee to examine this heinous crime.
The Civil Defense announced it is working with relevant authorities to prepare a professional technical report documenting the massacre, which will be submitted to international human rights organizations and institutions.
The execution of the rescue team in Rafah raises the number of Civil Defense personnel killed in the ongoing war of extermination to 110.
According to circulating information, it was an Israeli officer who guided the international rescue teams to the execution site before they retrieved the victims’ bodies, which had been buried by an Israeli bulldozer—further suggesting the crime was intentional, especially as the bodies showed gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
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