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Days after the United Nations accused Israel of killing 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza, officials who recovered the bodies or carried out the autopsies said some of the rescue workers were shot multiple times before being <\/span>buried in a mass grave.<\/p>\n The Palestine Red Crescent Society, which had eight of its members killed and carried out the recovery mission, said that nearly all 15 bodies showed gunshot wounds, according to a spokeswoman, Nebal Farsakh. One paramedic was found with his hands and feet tied toward his body, Ms. Farsakh said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy colleagues were shot; the bodies who were retrieved, many of them have multiple gun shots. We found all of them thrown in a mass grave, the bodies were put next to each other and covered with sand,\u201d said Ms. Farsakh in a telephone interview from Ramallah.<\/p>\n The deaths of the aid workers, who first went missing on March 23, have drawn international condemnation in recent days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On that day, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, ambulances and a U.N. vehicle came under attack from Israel\u2019s military, then went silent. On Sunday, rescue teams found 15 bodies, most in a shallow mass grave along with their crushed ambulances and the vehicle marked with the U.N. logo. The United Nations, which is typically cautious about assigning blame, accused Israel of killing them.<\/p>\n An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said on X<\/a> on Monday that nine of those killed were Palestinian militants. He said Israeli forces \u201cdid not randomly attack\u201d an ambulance, but that several vehicles \u201cwere identified advancing suspiciously\u201d without headlights or emergency signals toward Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Hamas terrorists operate in active combat zones \u2014 while using humanitarian vehicles as cover, launching rockets from hospitals and stealing aid \u2014 Israel will do whatever it takes to protect its soldiers and citizens,\u201d said Jonathan Harounoff, a spokesman for Israel\u2019s mission to the U.N.<\/p>\n Dr. Ahmad Dhair, a forensic expert at the Nasser hospital in the Gazan city of Khan Younis, examined five bodies belonging to the humanitarian workers on Monday. He said in a telephone interview from Gaza that he had found multiple bullet wounds in four of the bodies and some appeared shot at close range. The fifth was decomposed beyond recognition, Dr. Dhair said.<\/p>\n He plans to examine the rest of the bodies on Thursday. One of the four had bruises on the wrist with linear marks on the skin, Dr. Dhair said, adding that further investigations were required to determine if any of the victims had been tied up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSome of them were shot in the head from behind,\u201d Dr. Dhair said. He said he also saw gunshot wounds in the torso and the chest, adding that the shoulder and elbow joints were also targeted.<\/p>\n