Members of the Palestine Red Crescent and other emergency services pray by the bodies of fellow rescuers killed a week earlier by Israeli forces, during a funeral procession in Khan Yunis, Gaza, March 31, 2025. (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

(JTA) — An Israeli army deputy commander is being dismissed as a result of the Israel Defense Forces’ investigation into what happened last month when soldiers fired on medics in an ambulance in Gaza.

Fifteen people were killed in the incident, which took place on March 23, days after a two-month ceasefire ended. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the dead included eight of its medics, six members of Gaza’s civil defense agency and one employee of a United Nations agency.

“The IDF regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the army said in announcing the conclusion of its investigation. “The examination process also serves as part of an ongoing effort to learn from operational incidents and reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.”

The incident drew scrutiny almost immediately, with the United Nations decrying revelations of a “mass grave,” reports indicating that some of the dead appeared to have been bound, and video contradicting Israel’s initial account that its soldiers had fired on an unmarked car advancing toward them.

In fact, the army probe concluded, three separate shooting incidents took place in the same location that day. In the first, Hamas operatives fired on an IDF position. An hour later, the probe found, soldiers opened fire on personnel exiting a fire truck and ambulances in the area, which the deputy commander did not recognize as emergency vehicles and believed posed a threat. Later, the army fired on a United Nations vehicle that arrived, due to what it said was “operational errors in breach of regulations.”

The army said the deputy commander, whom it praised as having returned from abroad after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and havin reentered Gaza after previously being wounded there, would be fired in part because of errors in the field and because he provided “an incomplete and inaccurate report” after the incident.

The commander’s decision to crush the emergency vehicles after the killings — a move the army makes when vehicles are determined to have belonged to terrorists — was wrong, the army concluded. But it rejected the idea that the bodies of those killed had been mishandled.

“The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” said the IDF’s report, released on Sunday. “Such claims are blood libels and false accusations against IDF soldiers.”

After the killings, six of the dead were determined to be Hamas operatives, according to the IDF report. It did not identify them.

The Palestine Red Crescent has called for an independent investigation into the incident. The group rejected the IDF’s report, saying it shifting responsibility for systemic problems onto an individual.

The United Nations humanitarian chief in Gaza said he believed the investigation did not go far enough. “A lack of real accountability undermines international law and makes the world a more dangerous place,” Jonathan Whittall said in a statement. “Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfolding, and the norms designed to protect us all, eroding.”

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