The killing of 15 medics and humanitarian workers in Gaza after shots were fired at their ambulances by Israeli forces raise further concerns of "war crimes by the Israeli army," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said.
"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," said Volker Turk, before the UN Security Council.
It comes as Israel's military has said it is conducting an investigation into the deaths of the 15 Palestinian aid workers, who were killed by Israeli troops when the troops opened fire on ambulances last month.
Their bodies were found in a shallow grave near Red Crescent vehicles, in an incident that caused global alarm.
The military said that troops fired on the cars believing they carried fighters.
The UNreported that 15 medics and humanitarian workers were killed.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers after Israeli forces targeted the ambulances in southern Gaza last month.
The bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza's civil defence agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement.
The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that a team of first responders was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, and other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.
UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said yesterday that a mass grave in Rafah where the bodies of the 15 medics were found illustrated the "war without limits" that Israel is leading in Gaza.
An Israeli military official said the army "contacted the organisations multiple times to coordinate the evacuation of the bodies, in accordance with the operational constraints".
"Understanding that the process might take time, the bodies were covered with sand and cloth sheets so that they wouldn't get damaged," the official said.
"The incident from March 23, 2025, in which IDF (military) forces opened fire targeting terrorists advancing in ambulances, has been transferred to the General Staff's fact-finding and assessment mechanism for investigation," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a statement.
The military has not formally responded to claims that the bodies were dumped in a mass grave.
Speaking after a mission to Gaza uncovered the mass grave, Mr Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said "it was shocking" to see medical workers "still in their uniforms, still wearing gloves, killed while trying to save lives".
UN chief Antonio Guterres too expressed shock at the killings.
"The secretary-general is shocked by the attacks of the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on March 23 resulting in the killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a briefing yesterday.
Gaza rescuers say Israeli air strikes in north kill at least 15
Meanwhile Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes in the north of the territory have killed at least 15 people early, as the military issued an evacuation order for residents of the area.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that the strikes targeted several homes in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood. "There are still a number of people trapped under the rubble," he said.
The Israeli military issued a new evacuation order for residents of Shujaiya and some other districts in the Gaza's north.
"The IDF (military) is operating with great force in your areas to destroy the terrorist infrastructure," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
"You must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City."
