The IDF has admitted to “mistakenly identifying” a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.

The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.

The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.

But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.

In a new statement issued following the release of the footage, the IDF said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.

Israeli soldiers exchanged fire with people in the car, killing one person and capturing two others, the IDF claimed, adding that the Hamas car remained on the side of the road.

When the ambulances arrived, “the soldiers opened fire thinking they were a threat,” it added.

The soldiers “were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road, next to the abandoned Hamas vehicle, and several suspects getting out quickly and running”, the statement said.

“The soldiers were unaware that the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.

“The IDF acknowledges that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off, was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.”

The newly-emerged video footage “showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on,” the statement admits. The IDF’s re-investigation is looking into this discrepancy, it said.

Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the statement says this is “an approved and regular practice […] to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses”.