JERUSALEM: Diverging accounts have emerged regarding a deadly attack in Gaza last month in which Israeli troops fired on ambulances, after 15 bodies were found buried in the sand.
The United Nations said those killed were emergency responders answering distress calls from Palestinians in southern Gaza, while the Israeli military said they were Palestinian "terrorists".
The UN said 15 emergency responders, mainly from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and Gaza's civil defence agency, were killed on March 23.
An employee of the UN agency for supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was among them. One other emergency worker remains missing.
In the days that followed, their bodies were discovered buried together in sand in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, in Gaza's southern region.
What happened on March 23?
The attack occurred as Israeli forces encircled Rafah, where authorities warned "thousands of civilians" were trapped under bombardment.
In response to distress calls, PRCS sent a team of 10 medics from the Tal al-Sultan unit in four ambulances to the Barksat and Hashashin areas in eastern Rafah.
Simultaneously, Gaza's civil defence agency sent six emergency responders in an ambulance and fire trucks to a separate bombing site nearby.
PRCS said that on their way to Hashashin, its medics lost contact after being surrounded by the army.
Gaza's civil defence agency said contact was also lost with its six staff sent to the bombing site.
What does Israeli military say?
The Israeli military said its forces fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles".
It said they "did not randomly attack" any ambulance.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities.
A separate military statement said an initial assessment indicated troops had "eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad".
Neither the military nor Shoshani have addressed the fate of the remaining six bodies.
Hamas has also not commented on Shubaki's reported death.
On Thursday, Shoshani said the military was investigating the incident but insisted it was "definitely not an execution".
Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were "in their uniforms, still wearing gloves" when they were found.
An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered "in sand and cloth" to avoid damage until coordination with international organisations could be arranged for their retrieval.
Israel has frequently accused Palestinian militants of using medical facilities and ambulances as shields.
Previously, at times, it has released footage allegedly showing militants in emergency vehicles.
What was found in search operations?
Following the attack, PRCS initially said one medic had been detained by Israeli forces, leaving nine others and six civil defence workers unaccounted for.
The detained PRCS medic was released a day later.
On March 27, Gaza's civil defence agency reached the attack site and discovered their destroyed ambulance, fire trucks, PRCS ambulances, and safety equipment belonging to some of the victims.
They also found the bodies of the missing medics, "buried under the rubble by Israeli bulldozers".
That day, they were able to retrieve only the body of civil defence team leader Anwar al-Attar.
The remaining bodies could not be recovered, as Israeli authorities had granted only a two-hour window for the search operation.
Another search mission on March 30, coordinated between Gaza's civil defence agency, PRCS and OCHA, located the remaining bodies.
Whittall, who coordinated the operation, confirmed all of those killed had been buried together.
"The grave that they were buried in... was marked by the emergency light from one of the ambulances that were crushed by Israeli forces," he told a news conference.
He said that near the grave "the ambulances, the fire truck, a UN vehicle had all been crushed".
In the UN vehicle was the body of the UNRWA employee, spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP.
What are the unknown elements?
Some aspects of the incident are still unclear.
While Palestinian officials report 15 medics were killed, the military has acknowledged only nine deaths, all of whom it identified as militants.
It is unclear whether all the vehicles travelled together and were struck at the same time.
Whittall of OCHA said that "the ambulances were hit one by one as they advanced, as they entered into Rafah".