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Two hours later, as dawn was breaking, the emergency convoy approached the same spot. When the rescue workers began to leave their vehicles, the official said, the Israeli forces believed that they were Hamas operatives heading for them and opened fire from afar.<\/p>\n
Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, said in an interview that the soldiers had \u201cgood reason to be anxious\u201d and that it would be wrong to assume immediately that the case was one of \u201cmurder in cold blood,\u201d citing Hamas fighters\u2019 frequent use of civilian infrastructure as cover.<\/p>\n
But the episode raises questions, Mr. Harel said, about the soldiers\u2019 conduct and the version of events they reported from the ground.<\/p>\n
The military official denied reports that some of the bodies were found bound and shot at close range. He said that the troops had buried the bodies to shield them from wild animals and used heavy equipment to move the disabled vehicles off the road, mangling them.<\/p>\n
What the aid groups say<\/h2>\n
Palestine Red Crescent Society representatives said last week that ambulances had set out around 3:30 a.m. on March 23 to evacuate Palestinian civilians wounded by Israeli shelling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Red Crescent said that an ambulance and its crew had been hit by Israeli forces and that several more ambulances and a fire truck headed to the scene over the next few hours to rescue them. A U.N. vehicle was also sent, the United Nations said.<\/p>\n
Seventeen people were dispatched in total, of whom 10 were Red Crescent workers, six were emergency responders from Gaza\u2019s civil defense service and one was a U.N. worker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n