14 Gaza medics killed by Israeli military fire found in Rafah: Red Crescent
The Palestinian Red Crescent says it has recovered the bodies of 14 paramedics killed in Israeli military fire on ambulances in the southern Gaza Strip one week ago.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that eight of the bodies have been identified as PRCS members, five as members of the Civil Defense, and one as a UN agency employee. One PRCS first responder is still missing.
"PRCS was devastated today by the loss of eight of our paramedics in Rafah who were targeted by the occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duty, responding to the wounded and injured in the Hashashin area of Rafah," the organization said.
"The ninth paramedic is still missing and is believed to have been detained."
PRCS President Younis al-Khatib strongly condemned Israel for targeting its paramedics as they “fulfill their humanitarian mission.”
“Those souls are not mere numbers. If this incident [happened] anywhere else, the whole world would have moved heaven and earth to expose this war crime,” al-Khatib said.
Two days prior, a joint team from the PRCS and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was able to reach the site where the medics were last seen and recovered a buried body.
A group of 15 paramedics and rescue workers from PRCS and Gaza’s Civil Defense “vanished" on March 22 in the besieged region following an incident in which Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said it was “a deliberate and brutal massacre against civil defense and Palestinian Red Crescent teams in the city of Rafah.”
Naim slammed the attack on the ambulance and said the “targeted killing of rescue workers constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime”.
The PRCS killings come amid Israel's continued assault on Gaza, where over 50,300 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023.
Aid workers from organisations, including World Central Kitchen and the UK-based Al-Khair Foundation, are among those killed in recent Israeli strikes.
US orders social media screening for student visa applicants to bar those critical of Israel
Moving against global tide, Israel eliminates all tariffs on US goods
Hamas slams Ben-Gvir’s storming of al-Aqsa Mosque as ‘dangerous escalation’
VIDEO | Unceasing genocide vs. Palestinians
VIDEO | Iran's response to Trump's threat
US orders social media screening for student visa applicants to bar those critical of Israel
VIDEO | Iran marks anniversary of Israeli attack on embassy in Damascus
Hamas slams Ben-Gvir’s storming of al-Aqsa Mosque as ‘dangerous escalation’
Moving against global tide, Israel eliminates all tariffs on US goods
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Key well launched at Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
