Experts warn that the timing of the potential drawdown could alarm NATO allies and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin. Senior Defense Department officials are considering a proposal to withdraw as many as 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe, sparking concern on both continents that it would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to six U.S. and European officials who have been briefed on the matter. The units under consideration are part of the 20,000 personnel the Biden administration deployed in 2022 to strengthen the defenses of countries bordering Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The numbers are still being discussed, but the proposal could involve removing up to half of the forces sent by Biden. Internal discussions about reducing American troop levels in Romania and Poland come at a time when President Donald Trump is trying to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire. The six U.S. and European officials, all of whom requested anonymity, described multiple details of the proposal that have not been previously reported to NBC News. If the Pentagon adopts the proposal, it will reinforce fears that the United States is abandoning its longtime allies in Europe who view Russia as a growing threat, European officials said. Russian officials would “assess a downsizing of U.S. forces as a weakening of deterrence, and it will increase their willingness to meddle in various ways across the spectrum in Europe,” said Seth Jones, a senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants European allies to take more responsibility for their own defense, allowing the United States to focus its military resources on China and other priorities. In his first trip abroad as defense secretary, Pete Hegseth said in a speech in Brussels in February that “stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Instead, the United States would focus on securing its southern border and countering China, he said. Elbridge Colby, whom the Senate is expected to confirm soon to be the Pentagon’s top policy adviser and No. 3 official, has called for a greater focus on China. Colby has argued against devoting more resources to Ukraine and called for reductions in the number of troops in Europe in favor of focusing on the threat from China. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, appeared to criticize that approach at a hearing Thursday. “There are some who believe now is the time to reduce drastically our military footprint in Europe,” Wicker said, without providing any details. “I’m troubled at those deeply misguided and dangerous views held by some midlevel bureaucrats within the Defense Department,” he added, without identifying the officials. “They’ve been working to pursue a U.S. retreat from Europe, and they’ve often been doing so without coordinating with the secretary of defense.” A Pentagon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The Army declined to comment. At a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Gen. Chris Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command and the supreme allied commander of NATO, told the House Armed Services Committee that he opposed reducing U.S. troop levels in Eastern Europe. “In 2022, we originally surged forces forward,” Cavoli said, referring to the military units that the Biden administration sent after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We have periodically reviewed the force structure at both the military level and the policy level. And I have consistently recommended throughout that period to maintain the forces we surged forward, and I would continue to do so.” A Pentagon official who testified alongside Cavoli, Catherine Thompson, declined to give her opinion but acknowledged that troop levels in Europe are under review. Budget cuts expected As the Pentagon undergoes budget cuts under Trump, shrinking the U.S. military’s footprint in Europe would free up resources, potentially for the Indo-Pacific region, which administration officials have said they see as a higher strategic priority. Canceling the deployment of combat units to Eastern Europe could also save money for the Army, which is trying to boost investments in innovative equipment and weapons. Roughly 80,000 American troops are stationed in Europe. After Russia launched the war, lawmakers from both parties backed a strong U.S. military presence along NATO’s eastern flank, seeing it as an important signal to Putin that the United States remains committed to the defense of those border states. But Trump campaigned on a promise to end the war quickly and is now pushing for a ceasefire. He has taken a very different stance toward Ukraine from that of Biden, who vowed to provide weapons and other aid to Kyiv “as long as it takes” to prevail. Trump has pressed Ukraine to make concessions upfront. He suspended military and intelligence assistance for a week after a public clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he has made no specific commitment about future U.S. military aid. Ben Hodges, a retired three-star general who oversaw the Army in Europe, said he wondered what kind of analysis was done to lead officials to consider the proposal to withdraw troops in the region. “You’ll have a lot less deterrent capability,” Hodges said. “Now Poland obviously is growing its capability, the Romanians are, other European countries are, but that’ll be a hole that’ll have to be filled.” Russia is pursuing a major rebuilding and reform of its military, including modernizing equipment and ratcheting up weapons production, according to a Danish intelligence assessment released in February. If the war in Ukraine ends or is frozen in a ceasefire arrangement, Russia could be capable of waging a large-scale war in Eastern Europe within the next five years if NATO failed to bolster its defenses, the report said.

Heavy rains began last week, causing the key Ndjili River to overflow on Friday and submerge hundreds of buildings. The death toll from flooding that cut access to over half of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa reached 33 as authorities raced Monday to evacuate and support hundreds of families trapped in their homes. Ten more people were confirmed dead as of Sunday evening, in addition to the 23 people killed the day before, Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemin Shabani said on state television late Sunday. Heavy rains began last week, causing the key Ndjili River to overflow on Friday and submerge hundreds of buildings. While the situation had improved by Monday morning, some access roads remained blocked and vehicular traffic was limited. Many residents blamed the government for not responding quickly enough to the disaster. “We lost everything and left everything behind,” said Marie Nzola, one of those whose properties were destroyed. “The rain caught us by surprise late at night.” Officials said Sunday that most of the fatalities were caused by walls that collapsed shortly after the deluge began. The main road to the airport, which also links Kinshasa to the rest of Congo, was damaged by the flooding but will be open to all traffic within 72 hours, Kinshasa Gov. Daniel Bumba said over the weekend. The flooding has also hampered access to drinking water in at least 16 communes after water facilities were affected, the Congolese interior ministry said in a statement. The government has set up at least four emergency shelters that were catering to hundreds of displaced families across the city, the ministry said. Resident Clément Matwidi, one of those affected by the flooding, expressed frustration and asked the government for more support. “Everything is lost due to the floods (and) we are here waiting for the government’s decision,” he said. In 2022, at least 100 people were killed during similar flooding in Kinshasa. The disaster comes as the government is battling a humanitarian disaster in the east of the country, more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) from Kinshasa, where decades of fighting with rebels escalated in February, worsening what is already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

NEW DELHI — Indian police have arrested a 24-year-old American YouTuber who visited an off-limits island in the Indian Ocean and left an offering of a Diet Coke can and a coconut in an attempt to make contact with an isolated tribe known for attacking intruders. Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested March 31, two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island — part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands — in a bid to meet people from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, police said. A local court last week sent Polyakov to 14 days of judicial custody, and he is set to appear again in court on April 17. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Indian authorities said they had informed the U.S. Embassy about the case. Visitors are banned from traveling within 3 miles of the island, whose population has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The inhabitants use spears, bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they attack anyone who lands on their beaches. "The Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "We are aware of reports of the detention of a U.S. citizen in India. We take our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad seriously and are monitoring the situation." In 2018, an American missionary who landed illegally on the beach was killed by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and buried his body on the beach. In 2006, the Sentinelese killed two fishermen who had accidentally landed on the shore. Indian officials have limited contact with rare "gift-giving" encounters, with small teams of officials and scientists leaving coconuts and bananas for the islanders. Indian ships also monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure that outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese, who have repeatedly made it clear they want to be left alone. Police said Polyakov was guided by GPS navigation during his journey and surveyed the island with binoculars before landing. He stayed on the beach for about an hour, blowing a whistle to attract the islanders' attention, but he got no response. He later left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering, made a video on his camera and collected some sand samples before he returned to his boat. On his return, Polyakov was spotted by local fishermen, who informed the authorities. He was arrested in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago nearly 750 miles east of India’s mainland. A case was registered for violation of Indian laws that prohibit any outsider from interacting with the islanders. Police said Polyakov had conducted detailed research on sea conditions, tides and accessibility to the island before he started his journey. "He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe," Senior Police Officer Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal said. In a statement, police said Polyakov’s “actions posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, whose contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by the law to protect their indigenous way of life.” An initial investigation revealed that Polyakov had made two previous attempts to visit the islands, in October and January, including in an inflatable kayak. Police said Polyakov was drawn to the island by his passion for adventure and extreme challenges and was fascinated by the Sentinelese people's mystique. Survival International, a group that protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, said Polyakov’s attempted contact with the tribes of North Sentinel was "reckless and idiotic." "This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk," the group’s director, Caroline Pearce, said in a statement.

The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week, the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, wasn't immediately known. Gunmen have killed at least 52 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days of attacks in Nigeria’s northern Plateau state, which has a history of violence between farmers and cattle herders, the national emergency agency said. The reason for the attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week was not immediately known but it is the worst outbreak of violence since December 2023, when more than 100 people were killed in the same district. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the scale of the violence became clearer at the weekend as 52 people were confirmed dead while 22 others were taken to hospital. NEMA said in a statement late on Sunday that “gunmen carried out brutal assaults,” leading to multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of property. “Over 1,820 individuals have been displaced. Three displacement camps have been established,” the agency said, adding that the security situation remained tense. President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to hunt down the attackers, who would face “severe punishment”, the presidency said. Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years. The violence is often painted as ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers. But climate change and the reduction of grazing land through agricultural expansion are also major factors.

On a bustling weekday in Toronto, Shauna Daniels was out "hunting for stripes". It's a term she uses for shopping for the iconic – and increasingly rare – coloured stripes that are emblematic of Canada's oldest corporation, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Sales of HBC's striped merchandise – from handcrafted wool blankets to patio umbrellas – have skyrocketed since the company announced it would be liquidating all of its department stores nationwide. On eBay, the blankets, which normally retailed for about C$300, were being sold for over C$1,000 ($710; £540). The stripes have become "a symbol and an emblem of a tremendous chapter for the country", Ms Daniels told the BBC while browsing on her lunch break. "It's emotional," she added, as she recalled going ice skating in the city centre as a child with her parents, and passing by the department store's window displays. This HBC stripes fever has arrived amid a growing movement to "buy Canadian" in the face of tariffs from the United States, and a surge of national pride in response. Sales of the merchandise have increased so much since news of the impending closures was announced that the company was able to make good on some of its debts - it owes almost almost one billion dollars to creditors - and keep six stores from liquidating. Still, 80 Hudson's Bay stores, as well as a handful of Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th stores in Canada have gone into liquidation sales. It's a sorry fate for one of Canada's most recognisable brands. Founded in 1670, HBC was granted a royal charter to control trade in parts of Canada. The company began trading woolen "point" blankets - made overseas in the Oxfordshire town of Witney - with local indigenous communities. The blankets themselves were often striped with rich colours – indigo, red, canary yellow and emerald green, said to be popular during Queen Anne's reign, from 1702-1714. That history – of colonialism and imperialism – has led some to critique the company's place in Canadiana. But the blanket's stripes endured, becoming a symbol of not just the the Hudson's Bay Company, but Canada's rugged past. By the time the former British colony had become its own nation, HBC had pivoted from the no-longer booming fur trade, and had opened its first retail store in Winnipeg in 1881. The company began manufacturing the blankets for mass retail in 1929, and soon the HBC stripes were appearing on a wide range of home décor. Toronto-based interior designer Kate Thornley-Hall has repurposed blankets into her own designs, from pillow cushions to ottomans. "It's an enduring reminder of the pivotal role that the Hudson's Bay played in the development of our country," she told the BBC. With branches in every major city, a Hudson's Bay department store became a major attraction. Filigreed stone facades made these stores not just a place to pick up necessities, but a destination for tourists and locals alike. In 2008, private equity firm NRDC purchased the company, turning this quintessentially Canadian retailer American. But the company's fortunes soon took a downturn, as department stores began to lose ground to online shopping. Retail analyst Bruce Winder told the BBC that the pandemic only accelerated this shift in consumer habits, leaving legacy retailers like Sears, HBC and the American mall struggling to retain shoppers. "Canadians, if they want to save, they go to places like Amazon or Walmart or Dollarama," he said. If they want to buy higher-end goods, they are more likely to go to a boutique or directly to a brand's website. NRDC, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, also diverted its attention elsewhere, acquiring Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman in 2024. Soon, Hudson's Bay was struggling to pay its landlords and suppliers. Trump's looming tariffs also caused its creditors to be concerned about the company's ability to pay them back, Mr Winder said. Some shoppers hope that the resurgence in demand for the blankets and other stripes merchandise will give the brand a second life. "I hope that people will again be drawn to shopping and luxury, rather than online fast fashion," Ms Thornley-Hall said. Analyst Mr Winder thinks that, while the return of the department store is unlikely, there could be space for the company to license its iconic stripes to another company, or open up small, HBC-branded boutiques. "I think it tells us that the brand has some affinity in Canada, albeit probably with select items, based on their heritage," he said.

HONG KONG — North Korea has once again closed its borders, suspending foreign tourism just weeks after the secretive state welcomed its first Western visitors in five years. North Korea sealed its borders in early 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic, gradually lifting restrictions starting in mid-2023. The first tourists, a group from Russia, were allowed into the country in February 2024, but the first international visitors from other countries including Britain, Canada, France and Germany only arrived in North Korea for the first time last month. The visit by the Western group was limited to the remote northeastern city of Rason, which the North Korean government has designated a special economic zone. During the trip, they visited factories, shops and statues of late North Korean leaders. Unlike the Russians, they were not allowed to visit Pyongyang, the capital. Tour operators said Wednesday that travel to North Korea was no longer possible until further notice. It was unclear why North Korea had closed again to foreign visitors and how long the suspension would last. “We have been informed that Rason is temporarily CLOSED,” Koryo Tours, a tour operator based in Beijing, said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s an unprecedented situation.” Other travel agencies that organize North Korea trips made similar announcements. “We recommend that those planning tours in April and May refrain from booking flights until we have more information,” China-based Young Pioneer Tours said in a Facebook post, adding that refunds are available for tours that are canceled due to the abrupt change. Rason has operated differently from the rest of North Korea since it was declared a special economic zone in 1991. It has been used as a testing ground for new economic policies, the country’s first mobile phone network and the first card payment system. Before the pandemic, North Korea had hosted hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists who provided up to $175 million in extra revenue in 2019, according to the South Korea-based news outlet NK News. More recently, North Korea has been deepening ties with Russia, signing a mutual defense pact last year and sending weapons and troops to support President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. In 2024, almost 900 Russian tourists visited North Korea, the South Korean Unification Ministry said, citing official Russian data.

In streamed remarks at an event hosted by Italy's right-wing deputy prime minister, Musk said Europe and the U.S. should move to "a zero-tariff situation." Tech mogul Elon Musk, a close adviser to President Donald Trump, on Saturday broke with Trump's decision to impose expansive tariffs on most foreign countries, saying he hopes to see a "zero-tariff situation" between the United States and Europe. "I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America," Musk told The League Congress, an event hosted Saturday by right-wing Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. "That's what I hope occurs, and also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America if they wish, if they wish to work in Europe or wish to work in America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view. So that has certainly been my advice to the president," Musk added. Trump announced tariffs this week on some of the country's largest trading partners. The United States is set to impose a 20% tariff on the European Union under his plan. Markets plunged Thursday, the day after Trump's announcement, as the S&P 500 index fell nearly 5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4% and the Nasdaq plummeted 6%, with all three posting some of the largest declines since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. At a White House event announcing the tariffs Wednesday, Trump said the United States has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered" by other countries' trading policies and called the next era in the United States the "golden age of America." After two days of the stock market’s falling, Trump was steadfast Saturday on Truth Social in his rationale for having imposed the widespread tariffs, writing that China "and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly. We have been the dumb and helpless 'whipping post.'" "THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!" he added. So far, European leaders have threatened to respond to the tariffs, with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, writing on X that: "Europe is prepared to respond. We’ll always protect our interests and values. We’re also ready to engage. And to go from confrontation to negotiation." The European Union, as well as other countries targeted by tariffs, has threatened to impose countermeasures later this month. Trump has long railed against free trade, which Musk expressed support for Saturday. The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Every day, Zeev Engelmayer takes a seat at his bay window overlooking his backyard in central Tel Aviv. His mission? Fighting despair with an army of colorful markers in a bid to bring hope to the people of Israel. For the past 18 months since the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, he has drawn a daily postcard, many featuring Israeli hostages. Some have been turned into banners, T-shirts and profile pictures on social media and have been embraced by the families of those taken captive. One even made its way to Pope Francis. Although the subject matter is often dark, the postcards are for the most part colorful and innocent. “I use a child’s style because a child has the ability to have hope even in times that are very difficult,” he told NBC News in February. In the first two weeks after the Hamas attacks, Engelmayer said he drew in black and white to reflect the deep sadness he felt about the attacks on Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. He said his first piece paid homage to “Guernica,” the 1937 anti-war masterpiece by renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. But then one morning he said he picked up colored pens and began to draw. Titled “Something Terrible Is About to Happen,” the picture he produced that day depicted Kibbutz Be’eri, a small community in southern Israel where dozens of civilians and security personnel were killed on the morning of the Hamas attack and more than 30 residents were also taken hostage. “I wanted to show the difference between what was before, this peaceful place, and the green trees and the flowers,” Engelmayer said. “I wanted to show the moments before it happened.” The first postcard he drew of a hostage, he added, was of grandmother Yaffa Adar, now 86, who was filmed as she was taken away in a golf cart from her home in nearby Kibbutz Nir Oz while surrounded by armed militants. “She had a little smile,” said Engelmayer, adding that she held her head up high so as not to give her captors “the satisfaction of taking her hostage.” Instead of drawing her capture, he said he imagined her happy return home. “I drew her surrounded by a woman with colorful dresses, spreading flowers in the air,” he said of Adar, who was freed four days later, on Nov. 24, 2023, after 49 days in captivity. Engelmayer said after that he was approached by relatives of many hostages asking him to depict their loved ones. They told him all about their hobbies and passions, as well as personal anecdotes, in the hope of inspiring him. One also made it to Pope Francis via an Italian diplomat, Engelmayer said, adding that the pontiff then “prayed for the hostages.” Throughout, Engelmayer said he was determined to highlight the plight of those in Hamas captivity, although many have since been freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal earlier this year and during a previous pause in fighting in November 2023. After Phase 1 of what was to be a three-stage ceasefire deal, Israel last month stepped up attacks in Gaza, where it has killed more than 50,500 people since the Oct. 7 attacks, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Some days, Engelmayer said he struggled to “find the optimism.” In September 2024, when American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s body was found shot execution style, alongside five other hostages, he said he “drew a very pessimistic, difficult painting.” A picture of Kfir Bibas, who was just 9 months old when he was kidnapped with his brother Ariel, 4, and their mother, Shiri, 34. The postcard depicted the ginger-haired baby celebrating his first birthday alongside his captors, with a cake, balloons and decorations. It “looks as though it’s a happy drawing, but it’s a very sad drawing,” he said. “It’s the saddest happy birthday I made,” Engelmayer added. The remains of the Bibas boys and their mom were later returned from Gaza by Hamas. Their father, Yarden Bibas, 34, was released by Hamas on Feb. 1. He had no idea about their fate until he was freed. Other postcards have proved more positive, the dreams of reunions having come true. When Emily Damari, 26, was released, she held up her left hand, two of her middle fingers missing after she was shot when taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. Inspired by her defiant gesture, Engelmayer said he drew her hand “like a tree, with leaves around and flowers.” His message? That “we can grow from this and heal from this.” Some of the hostages he’s depicted have reached out to thank him for his work, including Rimon Kirsht-Buchshtab, who used his drawing of her on her social media profiles. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, of which just around two dozen are believed to still be alive, including Israeli American Edan Alexander, and Engelmayer said he would not stop drawing the postcards until all had been returned. “This is the most important project I ever did,” he said. “It’s my mission.”

Duke's Khaman Maluach and Florida's Rueben Chinyelu met at NBA Academy Africa, a hub for talented athletes throughout the continent. They used to dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament. SAN ANTONIO — On Saturday evening, four banner college basketball programs will battle it out for supremacy — with Duke, Houston, Auburn and Florida preparing for the Final Four. But a fascinating subplot in the tale of tournament Goliaths is the emergence of two players, one from Nigeria and the other from South Sudan, who are now reunited at the NCAA tournament in San Antonio. “We don’t have many programs. … We actually don’t have any other programs like NBA Academy Africa,” said Khaman Maluach, Duke’s 7-2 center and a projected NBA lottery pick, who attended the elite academy from age 14 until he left for college. “It only takes like 24 players, or 22 players [at a time],” he said. “But it’s like millions of kids out there looking for that opportunity.”One of those other kids — Maluach’s good friend and fellow center Rueben Chinyelu — is a foundational figure for a Florida Gators squad that just made its first Final Four in more than a decade and first since longtime coach Billy Donovan left the program. Chinyelu described his friendship with Maluach and the other attendees of the close-knit academy as “a family.” “The brotherhood out here, it’s pretty strong,” the 6-10 Chinyelu said. “You have so many guys from different parts of Africa just leaving their home. You’re coming to a new home country that you haven’t been to. They don’t speak the language, they haven’t even tasted that food.”Chinyelu lost his father as a child and says he’s been supported by his family members (many of whom will be trying to watch the game in Nigeria) and his acquired basketball family who stick with him to this day. The two talented big men spent nights at the camp — sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m.— watching March Madness games and dreaming of the possibilities, but still not realistically thinking they could ever compete, much less face each other. “It never really crossed my mind that one day I’ll be playing for Duke,” Maluach said when he spoke to NBC News from the Blue Devils Alamodome locker room. “I didn’t know I was going to go to college,” much less “be able to play in a Final Four.”Now, several years later and thousands of miles traveled, the two could potentially meet with a title in the balance. Duke and Houston will vie for one spot in the championship game, and Florida and Auburn the other. The result is anyone’s guess — but a meeting of these two former classmates would be one for the ages. “Rueben has always been like an older brother to me,” said Maluach. “He has always helped me out.”

The attack killed 15 people. “I couldn’t see my two colleagues in the ambulance,” a surviving paramedic told NBC News, “but I heard their final breaths as they died.” Israel says its soldiers shot and killed “terrorists” in a convoy of vehicles advancing in the dark. According to an eyewitness interviewed by NBC News and video recovered from the phone of one of the victims, the ambulance lights were on and the emergency vehicles clearly marked when Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing 15 emergency workers. The footage, provided to NBC News by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Saturday, shows a darkened road in southern Gaza bathed in the headlights of a moving vehicle. An ambulance, its emergency lights flashing and marked with the insignia of the medical aid organization, approached another vehicle stranded on the roadside. As the convoy slows down, the windshield where Rifat Radwan, the paramedic shooting the footage, shatters. He exits the vehicle, the camera shaking as he falls to the ground and the screen goes black. Over nearly five minutes, Radwan could be heard repeating a prayer as the gunfire intensifies, before his voice fades and the camera falls still. Radwan’s body was recovered from a shallow mass grave near Rafah, a week after he was killed on March 23, along with his phone that contained this footage, the bodies of the 14 other humanitarian workers killed in the attack, and their crushed ambulances. The video was originally obtained and verified by The New York Times, and shown by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society at a news conference at United Nations headquarters in New York. The organization called for an independent investigation into the killing of health workers, who are protected under international humanitarian law, with the society accusing Israeli forces of committing a war crime. In a statement issued shortly after their bodies were recovered from the mass grave, the Red Crescent Society said the targeting of the medics “can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world.” The Israel Defense Forces told NBC News last week that it did not “randomly attack an ambulance,” and that vehicles approaching Israeli soldiers did so without headlights or emergency signals. According to the IDF, it fired on the convoy of ambulances because they were “advancing suspiciously,” and that it had killed a Hamas operative and “eight other terrorists.” In response to the video's release, the IDF said it will investigate "all claims" and review "the documentation circulating about the incident." Munzer Abed, a paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, survived the attack. He told NBC News the ambulance lights were on long before the attack started. Abed said the team had received a call about an attack in Rafah’s El-Hashasheen neighborhood, so they readied their ambulance, turning on both “interior and exterior lights,” and made sure their uniforms were visible. “I dropped to the ground,” Abed recalled in an interview with NBC News, describing the moment a round of shooting began. “I couldn’t see my two colleagues in the ambulance, but I heard their final breaths as they died.” Abed said he survived that attack by lying on the floor in the back of his ambulance. Civil defense video provided to NBC News last week showed dead bodies unearthed in a shallow grave. Eight Palestinian medics, six civil defense first responders and a U.N. staff member were among those recovered from the grave. Their deaths brought the total number of aid workers killed in Gaza to 408, according to the U.N. One paramedic, Assad al-Nassasra, remains missing, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Abed told NBC News that he was detained alongside al-Nassasra the morning after the attack, and that they were blindfolded and cuffed the last time that he was with him. Abed said that he was eventually told to leave, but that al-Nassasra was left in a cell. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the whereabouts of al-Nassasra. “We never enter red zones without coordination,” Abed said. “We were in a humanitarian zone.”