Israel frees Gaza aid worker who went missing after Israeli troops killed colleagues

PHOTO CAPTION: A screenshot taken from a video published by the Palestinian Red Crescent and obtained from cellphone of killed paramedic, shows the last moments during the incident in which aid workers were killed in Israeli fire, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 23, 2025. Palestinian Red Crescent/Handout via REUTERS

CAIRO (Reuters) -     Israeli authorities freed a Palestinian emergency responder who went missing in late March when 15 humanitarian workers were killed in Gaza in an incident that drew worldwide condemnation, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Tuesday.

PRCS staff member Asaad Al-Nsasrah went missing after the 15 paramedics and other rescue workers were shot dead on March 23 in three separate shootings at the same location near the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The 15 were buried in a shallow grave, close to their wrecked vehicles, where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the PRCS.

"The occupation forces have just released medic Asaad Al-Nsasrah, who was detained on March 23, 2025, while performing his humanitarian duty during the massacre of medical teams in the Tel Al-Sultan area of Rafah Governorate," PRCS said in a post on X.

The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment.

The military initially said soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position "suspiciously" in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed six militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in Palestinian Red Crescent vehicles.

But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the PRCS showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.

On April 20, the Israeli military said a review into the killing of emergency responders in Gaza found there had been "several professional failures". It said a deputy commander, a reservist who was the field commander, would be dismissed from his position for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report, and added that a commanding officer was to be reprimanded.     

 (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Editing by William Maclean)