Israel’s military has admitted it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”, with Hamas condemning it as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.

The incident took place last week in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

Israeli troops had “opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists”, the military said in a statement to AFP.

“A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops … The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles, eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.” The military did not say if there was fire coming from the vehicles.

It added that “after an initial inquiry, it was determined that some of the suspicious vehicles… were ambulances and fire trucks”, and condemned “the repeated use” by “terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes”.