Evidence of execution-style killing of Palestinian aid workers, says doctor

A forensic doctor who examined the bodies of some of the 15 paramedics and Palestinian rescue workers shot dead by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza has said there is evidence of execution-style killing, based on the "specific and intentional" location of shots at close range.

- Malak A Tantesh , Lorenzo Tondo , Julian Borger

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Palestinian Civil Defense and UN employees were on a humanitarian mission to collect dead and wounded civilians outside the southern city of Rafah on the morning of 23 March when they were killed and then buried in the sand by a bulldozer alongside their flattened vehicles, according to the UN.

The killing of the paramedics and rescue workers has triggered outrage around the world and demands for accountability.

Yesterday, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, said Gaza was the deadliest place on Earth for humanitarian workers. "Recent aid worker deaths are a stark reminder. Those responsible must be held accountable," Lammy said.

Ahmad Dhaher, a forensic consultant who examined five of the dead at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis after they had been exhumed, said all of them had died from multiple bullet wounds.

"All of the cases had been shot with multiple bullets, except for one, which could not be determined due to the body being mutilated by animals like dogs, leaving it almost as just a skeleton," Dhaher told the Guardian.

"Preliminary analysis suggests they were executed, not from a distant range, since the locations of the bullet wounds were specific and intentional," he said.

"One observation is that the bullets were aimed at one person's head, another at their heart, and a third person had been shot with six or seven bullets in the torso."