15 rescuers executed in Rafah. A mass grave. Mutilated bodies, hands tied. An attack on the very idea of humanity. The UN calls it a crime. Israel remains silent.
AMBULANCES TARGETED, BODIES DUMPED IN THE SAND
On 23 March 2025, after an Israeli strike on Rafah, five ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle entered the area to assist the wounded. They never came back. Fifteen rescuers were executed in cold blood. One is still missing.
A week later, OCHA teams discovered a mass grave. The bodies were found in uniform, gloves still on. Some had their hands tied behind their backs. Others had bullets to the head. All were discarded and hastily buried like garbage.
The victims came from the Palestinian Red Crescent, the Gaza Civil Defence and UNRWA. They were there to save lives. They were methodically gunned down. Footage released by OCHA shows ambulances crushed by tanks, a fire engine overturned, a UN vehicle riddled with bullets.
UN OUTRAGE
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk denounced a “targeted massacre” of humanitarian staff. “This raises serious questions about the conduct of the Israeli army.”
Jonathan Whittall, OCHA’s director in the occupied Palestinian territories, was unequivocal: “We found them under the rubble. Still wearing gloves. In uniform. They came to save lives. They were eliminated.”
In Geneva, spokesperson Jens Laerke said: “We lost colleagues. People we knew. Unarmed. Doing their duty. Today, we are at a loss for words.”
A WAR ON HUMANITARIANS
Since October 2023, 408 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza. Over 280 of them were UNRWA staff. Not collateral damage: a deliberate pattern. Each name erased was a medic, a rescuer, a familiar face in a shattered community. Deleted.
This is not war. It is the systematic removal of those who protect life. The Rafah attack is the deadliest against Red Cross personnel in over six years. Ambulances are no longer sanctuaries: they are targets. Hospitals are not shelters: they are traps. Doctors are turned into martyrs. Paramedics are hunted. Firefighters are buried in their helmets.
To heal is a death sentence. To remain human, an act of subversion.
ISRAEL REMAINS SILENT
The Israeli army claimed the humanitarian vehicles had “approached suspiciously.” A recycled line, empty of meaning. No footage. No evidence. No apology. No shame.
For five days, the UN pleaded for access to the site. Five days of silence. Meanwhile, the bodies decomposed in the heat. A mass grave dug by fear, sealed with contempt.
OCHA footage is damning: two civilians sprinting under gunfire, pursued by snipers. The UN vehicle shredded by bullets. Ambulances destroyed. The rescuers picked off one by one. Methodically.
Israel knew. Israel watched. Israel let them die. Jonathan Whittall summed it up: “We requested access for five days. During that time, our colleagues were dying. And no one answered.”
GAZA STRANGLED
For over a month, Israel has sealed Gaza’s borders. No aid enters. No fuel. No medicine. No food. Nothing.
UNICEF reports 100 children killed or maimed every day since the bombings resumed in March. Hospitals are collapsing. OCHA speaks of “atrocity crimes.” The Red Cross confirms that more than half of Palestinian ambulances are out of service.
Gaza is not just under siege. It is being starved, suffocated, sacrificed.
THE LAW BURIED WITH THE BODIES
The Rafah massacre is not an accident. It is a message. A demonstration of force. A deliberate strike at the heart of decency: rescuers, medics, healers.
When aid workers are murdered and the international community looks away, this is not war, it is engineered barbarism.
This is not about numbers anymore. It is about names, faces, heroic acts erased by tank treads. This article is their grave. And our cry.
There is still time to prosecute. But far too late to pretend we didn’t know…
G.S.
