Sky News analysis shows the deaths of 15 humanitarian workers whose bodies and ambulances were buried in the sand are part of an increasing pattern.
On Sunday, a mass grave containing the bodies of 15 first responders was unearthed in Gaza. Sky News investigates how their final moments unfolded.
The group had disappeared during a rescue mission one week earlier.
An ambulance belonging to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was on a rescue mission in the early hours of 23 March when it called for help, the NGO says, claiming it was under attack by Israeli forces.
Three more ambulances were dispatched to assist them, along with a crew from the public sector organisation Civil Defence, but contact was soon lost with the group.
Satellite imagery shows the area on 26 March, three days after they went missing. Tyre tracks are visible, as are groundworks likely created by military vehicles.
The IDF says that its troops fired on the ambulances because they had not coordinated their movements with the military, and that their headlights and emergency signals were turned off.
Speaking to Sky News, however, the director of ambulance and emergency services at PRCS Mohammed Abu Mosahba said that coordination was not required because they were not inside an evacuation zone.
"[The first ambulance] moved into the area without coordination because it was a safe area and does not require coordination," he said.
The map below shows the location of the attack, in yellow. In red are the areas that the IDF had marked as evacuation zones in the days prior to the attack. In orange is a new evacuation order issued on the day of the attack, which includes the attack location.
This evacuation order was first posted online by the IDF's Arabic spokesman at 8.31am local time that day, around four hours after the incident began and almost an hour after PRCS first publicly said it had lost contact with the crew.
Abu Mosahba says that after the first ambulance came under attack, PRCS did request coordination for the other three ambulances.
Dr Mohammed Al Mughir, director of logistics at Civil Defence, also says that coordination was not required to move in the area until the evacuation order was issued, which he says was "more than three hours after our colleagues were killed".
He further disputes the IDF's claim that the vehicles had their headlights, sirens and emergency lights switched off.
"All vehicles had light signals, phosphorescent markings and features indicating that they were emergency vehicles," he says.
The lights from one of the ambulances were later discovered lying on top of the mass grave, marking its location.
Partially buried alongside the bodies were all four ambulances, as well as a fire engine and a UN vehicle.
A military weapons expert told Sky News that at least one of the vehicles visible in the footage has "certainly been crushed".
When Sky News asked the IDF why the vehicles were crushed and the bodies buried, it said the incident was being investigated.
In footage taken by the UN, aid workers can be seen digging dead bodies out of sand piles and placing them in white bags to be transferred to the mortuary.
Attacks on aid workers are growing more frequent
The discovery of the mass grave comes as aid organisations reconsider their position in Gaza amid a rise in attacks in the last few weeks.
At least 29 aid workers were killed or injured in the two weeks to 27 March, the highest rate of casualties in almost a year.
At least 336 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the NGO Humanitarian Outcomes, which provides data on aid worker security to humanitarian agencies and governments.
The data does not include the deaths of people working for public-sector organisations, such as Civil Defence.
Meriah-Jo Breckenridge, a research analyst at Humanitarian Outcomes, says there has been a "definite uptick" in attacks on aid workers since the ceasefire broke down on 18 March.
On 19 March, a guest house belonging to the UN's Office for Project Services (UNOPS) was attacked, killing a Bulgarian staff member and injuring six other international workers.
The picture below shows the damage sustained by the building, with a large hole in one wall.
The UN says the building was fired on by an Israeli tank, an allegation that the Israeli government denies.
UNOPS chief Jorge Moreira da Silva said that Israel knew the location of the building and who was working there.
"This was not an accident," he said.
That attack came just one day after an airstrike on a nearby residential building killed an employee of medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF).
"It's impossible for us to be able to operate in such conditions, when we put everybody at risk in an environment where the de-confliction is not working any more," said MSF head of mission Amanda Bazerolle.
Deconfliction is when aid organisations in Gaza voluntarily tell the IDF their locations to reduce the risk of accidentally being attacked.
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary general for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), says that agencies are not able to work with Israel on protecting their staff as successfully as before.
"It wasn't always happening in the past, but it certainly isn't now," said Mr Fletcher in an interview with Sky News.
Aid locations submitted to IDF
On 24 March, an office belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rafah was hit.
Footage taken in the immediate aftermath shows plumes of smoke billowing from the side of the building, which has a Red Cross flag clearly displayed on its roof.
The aid group said the structure was damaged by an explosive projectile. No one was killed or injured in the attack.
The IDF admitted responsibility, saying its forces had incorrectly identified a threat. They added that the building's ownership was "unknown to the force at the time of the shooting".
"There is basically not a single international aid organisation site, guest house, office or distribution point that has not been submitted with GPS coordinates to the IDF for probably the last year," says a senior aid worker who recently left Gaza.
"All movements are [deconflicted] and submitted for green lights."
On 25 March, the UN announced it had taken the "difficult decision" to remove around one third of its international staff from Gaza.
Olga Cherevko, a Gaza-based spokesperson for OCHA, says the decision was partly because of the UN has little aid to distribute, owing to a weeks-long Israeli blockade, but also "the lack of protection from Israeli authorities... in the sense that attacks against humanitarian workers have continued".
Director of the Palestinian NGOs Network Amjad Shawa criticised the UN's decision. "It's not just about aid delivery and distribution - they are our international protection and eye-witnesses," he said.
"It's very important for us to keep them here."
Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer, contributed reporting.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
天空新闻的分析显示,有15名人道主义工作人员被埋在沙土中,包括他们的遗体和救护车,这一情况反映了日益加剧的趋势。
周日,在加沙发现了一处集体坟墓,里面埋葬着15名最先到达现场的救援人员的遗体。天空新闻(Sky News)调查了他们最后的时刻是如何展开的。
该小组在一周前的一次救援行动中失踪了。
据非政府组织称,23日凌晨,隶属巴勒斯坦红新月会(PRCS)的一辆救护车在执行救援任务时请求援助,称其遭到了以色列军队的袭击。
另外三辆救护车被派去协助他们,同时,来自公共部门组织“民防”的一支队伍也前往支援,但很快与该群体失去了联系。
卫星图像显示了他们在失踪三天后的3月26日该地区的状况。可以看到轮胎印,以及很可能是由军用车辆制造的地面工程。
以色列国防军(IDF)表示,他们向救护车开火是因为救护车没有与军方协调其行动,并且他们的前灯和紧急信号灯已经关闭。
然而,在接受天空新闻采访时,巴勒斯坦红新月会救护车和急救服务部主任穆罕默德·阿布·莫萨赫巴表示,由于他们不在疏散区内,因此不需要进行协调。
第一辆救护车因该地区为安全区域且无需协调而直接驶入该区域。
下面的地图以黄色标记了袭击事件的发生地点,以红色标记了以色列国防军在袭击前几天标记的疏散区域,以橙色标记了袭击当天发布的新的疏散命令,该命令包括袭击地点。
以色列国防军阿拉伯语发言人于事发当天当地时间上午8点31分首次在网上发布了疏散命令,此时距离事件开始已约四小时,距离巴勒斯坦红新月会(PRCS)首次公开表示与机组人员失去联系已近一小时。
阿布·莫萨赫巴表示,在第一辆救护车遭到袭击后,巴勒斯坦红新月会确实为其他三辆救护车请求了协调。
民防部门物流部主任穆罕默德·阿尔·穆赫吉尔博士表示,在疏散命令发布之前,不需要在该地区进行协调行动,他表示,疏散命令是在“我们的同事被杀害后三个多小时”才发布的。
他进一步反驳了以色列国防军的说法,即车辆上的前灯、警报器和紧急灯已关闭。
所有车辆都配备了灯光信号、荧光标记和表明它们是应急车辆的标识。
后来发现其中一辆救护车的灯光位于万人坑的上方,标示出了万人坑的位置。
在尸体旁边,四辆救护车、一辆消防车和一辆联合国车辆都被部分掩埋了。
一名军事武器专家告诉天空新闻台,视频中至少有一辆可见的车辆“已经被压碎”。
当天空新闻台询问以色列国防军(IDF)为何要摧毁车辆和埋葬尸体时,IDF表示正在调查这一事件。
在联合国拍摄的视频中,可以看到救援人员正在从沙堆中挖掘出尸体,并将它们放入白色袋中,以便转移到太平间。
针对援助工作者的袭击事件正在变得日益频繁
最近几周,随着对加沙的袭击事件增加,援助组织正重新考虑其在加沙的立场,此时发现了这处乱葬坑。
截至3月27日过去两周内,至少有29名援助人员被杀或受伤,这是近一年来伤亡率最高的一段时间。
根据非政府组织“人道主义结果”的统计,自战争爆发以来,加沙已有至少336名援助人员被杀害。该组织向人道主义机构和政府提供有关援助人员安全的资料。
数据中不包括在公共部门组织,如民防部门工作的人员的死亡情况。
人道主义结果研究分析师梅丽亚-乔·布雷肯里奇表示,自3月18日停火失效以来,针对援助人员的袭击“明显增加”。
3月19日,联合国项目事务厅(UNOPS)的一处宾馆遭到袭击,导致一名保加利亚籍工作人员遇难,另有六名国际工作人员受伤。
下面的图片显示了该建筑所遭受的破坏,其中一堵墙上有一个大洞。
联合国称,一栋建筑遭到以色列坦克的炮击,而这一指控被以色列政府否认。
联合国项目事务厅(UNOPS)首席Jorge Moreira da Silva表示,以色列知道该建筑的位置以及谁在那里工作。
他说道:“这并非偶然。”
这次袭击发生在附近一栋居民楼遭到空袭,导致无国界医生组织(MSF)一名员工遇难的前一天。
MSF行动负责人阿曼达·巴泽罗尔(Amanda Bazerolle)表示:“在冲突解除机制不再起作用的环境中,我们无法在这样的条件下进行行动,因为这会使所有人处于危险之中。”
在加沙的援助组织自愿向以色列国防军(IDF)告知其位置以减少被误攻击的风险,这被称为“脱冲突”。
联合国人道主义事务协调办公室(OCHA)的副秘书长汤姆·弗莱彻(Tom Fletcher)表示,各机构在保护其工作人员方面,与以色列的合作已不如从前成功。
"在过去的某些时候并不总是这样,但现在确实已经不再这样了。"
向国际红十字会提交的援助地点
3月24日,位于拉法的红十字国际委员会(ICRC)的一个办事处被袭击。
在事故发生后的录像中,可以看到从建筑侧面冒出滚滚浓烟,屋顶上清晰可见一面红十字旗帜。
救援小组表示,该建筑被爆炸性弹药所损坏。在这次袭击中,没有人员伤亡。
以色列国防军承认了责任,称其部队错误地识别了威胁。他们还补充说,在枪击发生时,该建筑的所有权“对部队来说是未知的”。
最近离开加沙的一位资深援助人员表示,过去一年来,基本上没有国际援助组织的一个站点、宾馆、办公室或分发点未向以色列国防军提交过GPS坐标。
所有行动均已消除冲突并已提交以待绿灯通过。
3月25日,联合国宣布已作出“艰难决定”,即从加沙地带撤出约三分之一的国际工作人员。
联合国人道主义事务协调厅(OCHA)驻加沙的发言人奥尔加·切列夫科表示,这一决定部分原因在于联合国因以色列长达数周的封锁而难以分发援助,但同时也因为“以色列当局缺乏保护……从攻击人道主义工作者的行为一直在持续这一角度来看”。
巴勒斯坦非政府组织网络总监阿姆贾德·肖瓦批评了联合国的决定,他表示:“这不仅仅关乎援助的运送和分发——他们还是我们的国际保护者和目击者。”
‘对我们来说,让他们留在这里是非常重要的。’”
OSINT生产者Olive Enokido-Lineham提供了报道。
数据与法证团队(Data and Forensics team)是一个多才多艺的单位,致力于为天空新闻台(Sky News)提供透明的新闻报道。我们收集、分析和可视化数据,以讲述数据驱动的故事。我们将传统的报道技能与卫星图像、社交媒体和其他开源信息的先进分析相结合。通过多媒体叙事,我们旨在更好地解释世界,同时也展示我们的新闻报道是如何制作的。
