"My heart and soul died when Rifat was killed," says Haja Um Muhammad, the mother of a Palestinian paramedic, one of the 15 members of the emergency team who were killed in the attack by Israeli forces.
Rifat Radwan (23) was in a Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) ambulance that was in a convoy of emergency vehicles when it was attacked on March 23.
"I never imagined he would be killed, especially since the area was designated a green zone, meaning it was safe and open to ambulances," she adds.
Israel initially claimed that the soldiers opened fire because the convoy was approaching in a “suspicious” manner, in the dark, without headlights or rotating lights on.
However, a video recorded by Rifat and found on his phone after his death shows that the lights on the vehicles were on as they went to help the wounded.
"Forgive me, mother... this is the path I chose to help people," Rifat says in the video, shortly before he was killed.
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Um Muhammad believes he asked for her forgiveness because he knew his mother would never see him again.
“Every time Rifat went to work, I entrusted him to God,” she says.
"He was brave, he traveled all over Gaza, from north to south."
Rifat joined the PRCS as a volunteer after Israel launched a military operation in Gaza, following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Um Muhammad says her son loved humanitarian work.
"He even transported wounded people going to Egypt for treatment, through the Rafah border crossing."
He says that on the day of his death, Rifat left with an emergency team, after a series of attacks in which many people lost their lives.
"I didn't know he would be among the dead," she says.
His and his colleagues' bodies were found on March 30, just a week after the attack.
“Instead of celebrating Eid al-Fitr with Rifat, we went with the Red Cross to collect his body from Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis so we could bury him,” recalls Um Muhammad.
"His body was in a very bad state, in the stage of decomposition, and they didn't let me see it."
Um Muhammad says Rifaat was a "wonderful" human being and the only one who cared for her and his father, after all his siblings had married and given up.
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After finding the recording on the phone, Israel admitted that its initial claim that the vehicles were approaching without lights was not accurate, saying that the report was made by troops on the ground.
An Israeli official said that the bodies of 15 dead emergency workers, including Rifat, were buried with sand by soldiers to protect them from wild animals.
The bodies were only discovered a week after the attack, as international organizations, including the United Nations (UN), were unable to organize safe access to the area or precisely locate where the bodies were buried.
When the bodies were finally found, Rifaat's mobile phone, which contained a recording of the attack, was also discovered.
The Israeli military promised a "thorough investigation" into the incident and that it would "establish the sequence of events and the manner in which the situation unfolded."
The Red Crescent and numerous international organizations are calling for an independent investigation.
Munter Abed, the only member of the ambulance crew who survived the attack, says they were shot at without any warning.
"I threw myself on the floor in the back of the vehicle and didn't hear any of my colleagues' voices, except their last breaths," Abed says.
"Then the Israeli special forces arrested me, they held my head firmly on the ground so I couldn't see what happened to my team."
"When I found out that everyone had died, I was devastated," Abed says, barely able to hold back tears.
"They were my second family... my brothers, my friends, my loved ones."
"I wished I had died too in the horror I saw."
He says his phone was taken away during his arrest.
"They interrogated me for 15 hours, they beat me, they insulted me, they subjected me to both physical and psychological torture," Abed adds.
The BBC has asked the Israeli army command for comment on these claims, but they have not yet responded.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says the area where the emergency workers were located was not designated as a "red zone" by the Israeli military, meaning no prior coordination was required to access the site.
He also says that the footage does not show the presence of Israeli military vehicles in the area.
Watch the video: The paramedic who didn't recognize his mother among the dead
The Palestine Red Crescent adds that preliminary forensic reports show that the paramedics were killed by "multiple gunshots to the upper body," which, the organization says, is "further evidence of premeditated murder."
The organization also rejected the Israeli military's investigation and denied the Israeli side's claims that Hamas members were among those killed, which, according to PRCS, is an accusation made without any evidence.
The Israeli military said that Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir had received a preliminary report on the incident and had ordered "a more detailed investigation using the General Staff's investigative mechanism to be completed in the coming days."
In the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, approximately 1.200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
Since then, more than 50.750 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
A ceasefire agreement, announced in January, collapsed in March.
There are currently 58 hostages still being held in Gaza, and 24 of them are believed to be still alive.
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