The Israeli military said it is carrying out an investigation into an incident in Gaza in which a number of emergency and aid workers were killed.

A military spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani stated this on Thursday while rejecting that the killings could be called an execution.

Shoshani said the military’s Southern Command had transferred the investigation to a general staff mechanism outside the chain of command to establish what had happened and hold accountable people if need be.

Last month, the bodies of 15 workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and United Nations were found buried in a shallow grave at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, close to their wrecked vehicles.

According to the Red Crescent, Israeli forces, which resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after a two month truce, had targeted the workers.

Israel has said that on March 23 its troops fired on vehicles bearing Red Crescent markings that were carrying Hamas militants, and killed nine of them.

“Our initial investigation found that there were terrorists in these cars, using those Red Crescent cars,” Shoshani said.

He said troops later also fired on other unmarked vehicles that approached without emergency lights or prior coordination.

Israeli military launches special probe into Gaza aid worker deaths