Col. Tal Alkobi, commander of the Israel Defense Forces' 14th Reserve Armored Brigade, bears command responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of 15 Palestinian Red Crescent Service emergency responders by soldiers in the 631st Reconnaissance Battalion 'Sayeret Golani,' which was under his operational command in Gaza's Tel al-Sultan Refugee Camp on March 24, 2025.
As the senior commander with operational authority over the Sayeret Golani unit at the time of the massacre, Alkobi failed to prevent his subordinates from ambushing clearly marked ambulances and executing unarmed medical personnel at close range, violations that constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law.
The Massacre of Palestinian Emergency Responders
According to several media investigations, at 2:00 a.m. on March 24, 2025, the 631st Battalion positioned itself on a route between Tel al-Sultan and al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. According to Haaretz, the IDF ordered the unit to ambush fleeing Hamas militants whom they suspected were residing within the Tel al-Sultan district of Gaza. An hour and a half later, at 3:37 a.m., the deputy commander of the 631st Reconnaissance Battalion reported that he witnessed an ambulance approaching the 631st's dug-in position.
According to the IDF investigation, the deputy commander reportedly ordered his soldiers to approach the ambulance, where they shot and killed two Palestinian Red Crescent Service (PRCS) staff members, name and name, and detained and tortured PRCS staff member Munthar Abed, stripped him, tied his hands behind his back, beat him, physically threatened him with a knife to his body, and interrogated him on his alleged ties to Hamas and his role in the October 7th attack.
After the soldiers seized the first ambulance, Colonel Tal Alkobi of the 14th Brigade, under whose command the 631st was operating, ordered the unit to return to its initial position.
At 5:06 a.m. later that morning, a convoy of PRCS vehicles traveled through the area near the 631st's position, in between Khan Younis and al-Mawasi. Upon spotting the bodies of the two PRCS workers killed previously, the convoy stopped and medical teams disembarked. The battalion's deputy commander reportedly ordered soldiers from the 631st to open fire with machine guns at the dismounted PRCS workers, while ordering the remainder of the battalion to approach the convoy. Soldiers of the 631st then killed an additional 13 PRCS workers.
Video evidence shows that the PRCS workers were wearing fluorescent yellow vests and that their ambulances were all clearly marked with the logo of the Red Crescent with flashing red emergency lights activated. The IDF buried the bodies—and the ambulances—in a mass grave and did not allow retrieval of the corpses until March 29, one week later.
Evidence of War Crimes
According to the New York Times, autopsies of the medics revealed that the Sayeret Golani forces shot six of the 15 in the chest or back, and shot an additional four in the head at close range. The soldiers detained one PRCS worker, Asaad al-Nassasra, for 37 days without charge before releasing him back into Gaza on April 29, 2025. Israeli authorities did not provide al-Nassasra's family with information on his whereabouts or his cause for detention, which is an enforced disappearance.
In its initial public statements, the IDF claimed that the first ambulance was a "Hamas police vehicle." The IDF later claimed that the second ambulances carrying what would be the 13 Red Crescent responders were riding without activated emergency lights and in a suspicious manner. When rescue workers and the United Nations finally gained access to the site of the massacre a week later, they proved the IDF's version of events false: video from a cell phone recovered from one of the victims' bodies showed the ambulances' lights were clearly on and flashing. The IDF's own investigation subsequently found that, before the shooting, Israeli military forces alerted the Sayeret Golani soldiers to increased ambulance traffic in the area, and that the ambulances were on a permitted route.
The IDF subsequently provided several versions of events to the effect that Golani soldiers felt threatened by the vehicles, fired from a distance and were unaware that the unarmed victims, which video evidence showed were wearing reflective clothing, were PRCS personnel. Forensic video and audio analysis published by New York Times indicated that the Golani soldiers were shooting from much closer range than the IDF claimed. And according to the IDF, Golani personnel fired at the unarmed PRCS workers for over three minutes, with some reloading their weapons three times, despite PRCS workers' attempts to identify themselves.
Israeli television subsequently broadcast a video of the commander of Sayeret Golani telling his soldiers, prior to their deployment into Gaza several weeks earlier, that "everyone you encounter [in Gaza] is an enemy. Identify a figure – eliminate it."
An investigation by the IDF in April 2025 resulted in the dismissal of the deputy commander of Sayeret Golani, an IDF major, and a reprimand of Colonel Tal Alkobi. However, to date, Israeli authorities have filed no criminal charges against anyone involved in the murderous attack on the medics. After the killings, one member of Sayeret Golani posted a picture of himself in Rafah, at the massacre site, on Facebook with the caption: "Until next time you son of a b****."
Command Responsibility
As commander of the 14th Brigade with operational control over the Sayeret Golani unit during the massacre, Col. Alkobi bears command responsibility for the war crimes committed by his subordinates. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, which is part of customary international law, commanders are criminally responsible for the crimes of their subordinates when they knew or had reason to know that these crimes had been committed or were about to be committed, and despite this knowledge, willfully failed to prevent or punish these crimes.
The evidence demonstrates that Alkobi:
— Had direct operational command over the Sayeret Golani unit at the time of the massacre
–Ordered the unit to return to its position after the first ambulance attack, placing them in position for the second massacre
— Failed to investigate or prevent the subsequent killing of 13 additional PRCS workers
— Did not ensure his subordinates distinguished between civilians and combatants as required by international humanitarian law
Failure of Accountability
An investigation by the IDF in April 2025 resulted in the dismissal of the deputy commander of Sayeret Golani, an IDF major, and a reprimand of Colonel Tal Alkobi. However, to date, Israeli authorities have filed no criminal charges against anyone involved in the murderous attack on the medics.
The fact that Alkobi received only a reprimand for his command responsibility over the massacre of 15 medical personnel demonstrates Israel's systematic failure to hold commanders accountable for war crimes committed by their subordinates.
Legal Framework
The killing of medical personnel and attacks on medical units constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and war crimes under international humanitarian law. Article 19 of the First Geneva Convention states that medical units and establishments may not be attacked under any circumstances. Article 24 provides that medical personnel engaged in the search for, or the collection, transport or treatment of the wounded must be respected and protected in all circumstances.
Under Article 8(2)(b)(xxiv) of the Rome Statute, "intentionally directing attacks against buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law" constitutes a war crime.
Recommendations
The U.S. Department of State should enforce the Leahy Law against Col. Alkobi and any Israeli military units under his command, prohibiting them from receiving U.S. military assistance. The Leahy Law, passed in 1997, prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security force units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations.
The United States should impose visa bans on Col. Alkobi under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for his involvement in gross violations of human rights.
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