The Israeli occupation military has admitted to firing on ambulances in the Gaza Strip, a move that has been condemned by Hamas as a war crime.
The incident occurred last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of the southern city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. According to the Israeli military, troops had opened fire on “suspicious vehicles” that they later determined included ambulances and fire trucks.
“A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops… The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating several Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters,” the occupation military claims in a statement to AFP.
The Israeli army admitted on Saturday that it had opened fire on ambulances and executed medics in Gaza, claiming they were “suspicious.”https://t.co/pu826xJLnN
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 29, 2025
Hamas spokesman Basem Naim described the incident as a “deliberate and brutal massacre against Civil Defense and Palestinian Red Crescent teams.” He said the “targeted killing of rescue workers- who are protected under international humanitarian law- constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.”
The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, also condemned the incident, stating that since March 18, “Israeli airstrikes in densely populated areas have killed hundreds of children and other civilians. Patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed.”
“If the basic principles of humanitarian law still count, the international community must act while it can to uphold them,” Fletcher said.
The admission comes as ‘Israel’ has intensified its air and artillery strikes on Gaza since March 18, breaking a ceasefire that had lasted nearly two months. The latest casualties bring the total number of Palestinians killed since the renewed conflict to 896, with 1,984 injured, according to the health ministry.
Israeli occupation army launched on Saturday a large-scale attack on Gaza, as big explosions were heard heard in the enclave settlements. Zionist gunboats targeted civilians in Deir Al-Balah, Central Gaza, leaving 3 martyrs and a number of injuries.
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad Resistance Movement, indicated that its fighters targeted an Israeli military vehicle in eastern Khan Younis with an IED explosion and fired a number of mortar shells at the occupation forces in the area.
Source: Agencies (translated and edited by Al-Manar English Website)
