Paramedics Are a Target, and Their Orange Vests Do Not Protect Them

Paramedics are the first line of defense against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They have had to make tremendous sacrifices just by performing their duty, as the Israeli forces’ direct targeting of paramedics and healthcare workers has become a recurrent phenomenon. Targeting medical personnel is a flagrant violation of Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects health workers and medical units during armed conflict. Protocol I of 1977 also criminalizes attacks on hospitals and ambulances that are not being used as vehicles during hostilities. In the case of Palestine, there has been no evidence from any independent media outlet that suggests ambulances are being used for military combat, despite the false claims made by the Israeli occupation.  

On the morning of March 23, 2025, the Red Crescent in Khan Yunis received a distress call, reporting that that several women had been injured as a result of heavy shelling by the Israeli occupation forces targeting several houses in the Hashashin neighborhood of Rafah. An ambulance was dispatched to the site, displaying its distinctive Red Crescent emblem, carrying two paramedics and a driver, all of whom were wearing their designated orange vests.  

However, what was awaiting them was not a rescue mission, but an ambush. Before they were able to even reach the site, a hail of bullets rained down on them from Israeli forces. Though the ambulance’s sirens and lights were on, the gunfire from Israeli soldiers increased, killing the driver of the ambulance and one of the paramedics instantly. The paramedic Munther Abed survived by lying in the back seat of the ambulance, but the soldiers did not stop there. They continued firing until they approached the vehicle and forcibly removed Abed. After confirming he was a paramedic with the Red Crescent, they turned him into a human shield – once again violating one of the most basic tenets of human rights laws. 

Hours later, another ambulance team consisting of 13 paramedics, including an UNRWA employee and eight Red Crescent personnel, rushed to rescue their colleagues. They were immediately met with intense fire from Israeli soldiers, which killed most of them and seriously injured others. According to the survivors’ testimonies, the soldiers tied up the injured paramedics, threw them into a ditch and buried them in a mass grave. They then gathered the ambulances, crushed them with tanks and bulldozers and buried them underground, in a sight that is difficult to believe were it not for ample visual and testimonial proof.   

The surviving paramedic Munther Abed was subjected to extensive torture and abuse. The soldiers unleashed police dogs on him and made him help “sort through” people forced to flee from Rafah, dividing them into two groups: men and elderly to the right and women to the left. Abed’s testimony reveals a truly nightmarish scene: amidst all the surrounding horrors, he witnessed a woman carrying her dead daughter and another woman cradling a child who had been shot in the chest.  

The Israeli forces sent the women in groups of ten at a time to exit the town through the checkpoint, while the men were sent five at a time. Most were forced to strip down entirely and to wear white clothes before being gathered into a ditch, shackled at the wrists and blindfolded in preparation for their arrest. 

Abed was transferred to Israeli detention, where he was alarmed to find that his friend and colleague the paramedic Assad Al-Nasasra was among the detainees, also stripped of his clothes. Abed remained in detention for 15 hours, before being released by an Israeli Shin Bet officer who stated that he had been found “clean” during a security check. 

A crew of doctors later attempted to reach the site of the massacre, but the Israeli army obstructed their attempts for several days. Once they were able to reach the site, they discovered that most of the bodies of their colleagues had begun to decompose. The paramedics had been buried without any respect, ritual, or basic levels of human dignity. 

The Israeli army later claimed, as it usually does, that it had targeted “15 militants” in a combat zone in Rafah. A mobile phone found in the pocket of one of the murdered paramedics provided the proof to dispute this claim. The paramedic had documented the entire massacre by taking a video on his phone shortly before his death. The video spread like wildfire, exposing the falsity of the Israeli narrative, and confirming that all the victims were in fact paramedics. The Israeli army then backtracked their narrative, claiming that the ambulances had entered a “combat/“kill” zone without prior coordination, despite the fact that they had not issued any prior warning that the area was a combat zone.  

This is not the first time that paramedics in Gaza have been targeted by Israeli forces. Rather, it is part of long series of systematic attacks since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza. During the 2014 war, human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights reported that Israel had directly targeted 23 healthcare facilities and 50 healthcare workers. This recurrence points to a policy that is systematic, rather than the “military errors” the occupation army claims. 

The occupation would not be able to continue committing these crimes if it were not for the deadly silence of the international world. According to a report by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, during the last war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation targeted more than 60 ambulances and 160 healthcare institutes. More 1,060 healthcare workers have been martyred since the beginning of the genocide. More than 380 doctors, nurses, and paramedics have been arrested, some of whom were tortured to death, such as the doctor Adnan al-Bursh, the head of orthopedic surgery in Kamal Adwan hospital. Dr. Al-Bursh was a pillar in the medical field in Gaza, who spearheaded educational and training initiatives for young aspiring healthcare workers. He was arrested while performing his duties at Kamal Adwan Hospital and subjected to extreme torture that led to his death. His body has not been returned to his family, nor has he been permitted an autopsy. No international investigation into his case has yet been launched.  

The occupation’s crimes do not end there. It continues to target those who are already wounded and in ill health, to bomb hospitals, destroy healthcare centers and cut off medical supplies. By the end of March, it targeted the surgical building at Nasser Hospital, burning the second floor, which lead to the deaths of a number of doctors and patients. This was preceded by the demolition of the Turkish Friendship Hospital, the Shifa Medical Complex (the largest medical facility in Palestine), the Rantisi Children’s Hospital, Al-Nasr Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital, and others. Each time, the Israeli army deliberately  sabotaged all medical equipment, supplies and generators. 

At a time when the lives of medical personnel are reduced to numbers on the news, we must remember that every number represents a story, a life unjustly torn from their family. These paramedics, those who were martyred and those who are still alive, deserve to have their stories told and to have justice be demanded for them. 

What is happening in Gaza goes beyond simply targeting healthcare workers and medical personnel; it is a complete assault on the right to life and on the meaning of humanity itself. Documenting these crimes is not a matter of just recounting tragedies or accounting for the devastation, but it is also meant to establish a legal and historical record that can be used in future international trials. Without real, substantial pressure from the international world, these crimes will remain unpunished, and the those who have decided to be on the front lines, to save lives will continue to be the ones who are targeted.

This report was translated into English by Laila Alqaddumi