ISRAELI air attacks in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 people, mainly women and children, today.

The day before, the Israeli military was forced to backtrack on its account of the slaughter of 15 Palestinian medics by its troops last month after a phone video contradicted its version of events.

The footage was found on the dead body of one of the medics who was killed.

The Israeli military had claimed that the vehicles carrying the medics did not have emergency signals on when its troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip.

The army initially said that soldiers had opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. 

An Israeli military official, speaking on Saturday night on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, admitted that the original account was “mistaken” and was now “under thorough examination.”

The footage shows the Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had come under fire earlier. 

The teams do not appear to be acting unusually or in a threatening manner as three medics emerge and head toward the stricken ambulance.

Their vehicles immediately come under a barrage of gunfire. The owner of the phone can be heard praying.

“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose, mother, to help people,” he cries, his voice weak.

Eight Red Crescent personnel, six Civil Defence workers and a United Nations worker were killed in the shooting before dawn on March 23 by Israeli troops conducting operations in Tel al-Sultan, a district of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. 

Troops then bulldozed over the bodies, along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. 

Palestinian Red Crescent Society head Younes al-Khatib called for an independent investigation, saying: “We don’t trust any of the army investigations.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli killing spree continued in Gaza. Among the victims of the latest Israeli attacks were at least six people who died when their tent in southern Gaza was targeted. 

It is now more than a month since Israel banned humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.

UNRWA, the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, said it was continuing to assist with whatever supplies remain, but, posting on X, it warned that stocks are “getting low and the situation is becoming desperate.”

The agency added: “The siege must end and humanitarian aid must be allowed back in.”