It was in the early morning hours of March 23, 2025, that Munther Abed and his rescue team were dispatched by emergency services to the Hashasheen area in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Then the shooting began.

"On the way, we came under direct fire aimed at the car. When the shooting began, I lay on the floor in the back cabin of the car. After that I heard nothing," Abed, a volunteer paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), told DW by phone from Gaza.

His two coworkers in the front of the vehicle were killed. The next thing he heard were Israeli soldiers approaching. The 27-year-old said he was detained, beaten and questioned by the Israeli troops and only released hours later.

Abed was part of the first team of responders that came under fire by Israeli forces at dawn. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck, according to PRCS.

In all, 15 Palestinian rescue workers and paramedics were killed by Israeli forces that day, including eight from PRCS, six from the Palestinian Civil Defense and one UN staffer. The military then buried them in a shallow grave alongside their crushed vehicles.

The incident sparked international condemnation and calls for a thorough, independent investigation, even more so after a video emerged that cast doubt on the Israeli military's version of events leading to the killing of the rescue workers. The Israeli military has said that its investigation is ongoing.

"They were being dispatched into Rafah as Israeli forces were advancing into the area, the ambulances were hit one by one as they advanced," said Jonathan........

© Deutsche Welle