First responders embrace each other at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday as the bodies of Palestinian medics killed a week earlier in an Israeli strike on ambulances arrive at the facility. AFP
Medical and humanitarian workers in Gaza faced a grim reality on Sunday as the Palestine Red Crescent Society retrieved 15 bodies, including eight of its own staff, a week after losing contact with them.
The recovery came just a day after the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called for "urgent access and information following seven days of silence on the fate of nine medics in Gaza".
It said the crew came under heavy gunfire while responding in the Al-Hashashin area of Rafah in the early hours of March 23.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, also gave an update about a rescue operation in Gaza on Sunday that concluded with the recovery of the 15 bodies.
It confirmed eight were from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six from the Palestinian Civil Defense, and one from the UN.
"Their co-workers found them buried in the Tal Al Sultan area of Rafah," the UN said. "The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues."
The bodies were found alongside their wrecked emergency vehicles, which were "clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck, and a UN car", it said.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the OCHA office in Palestine, said on X that first responders "should never be a target".
One survivor claimed Israeli forces had killed both personnel in his ambulance, Whittall said, and OCHA has for days coordinated to reach the site "but our access was only granted five days later".
"While traveling to the area on the fifth day we encountered hundreds of civilians fleeing under gunfire," he said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Sunday that it was "outraged" at the deaths of the eight medics.
The devastating incident "represents the single most deadly attack on Red Cross (and) Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017", it said, adding that 30 Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteers and staff members had been killed since Oct 7, 2023.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it was devastated by the killing of the eight medics, who were "targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties". A ninth medic remains missing, it added.
Israel has yet to respond to the tragedy, but Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has issued a warning that soldiers would soon resume intense combat operations.
According to the NGO Physicians for Human Rights, the number of attacks recorded on health workers, patients, hospitals, and other medical infrastructure in Palestine since Oct 7, 2023, surpassed 1,000 last year.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed at least 64 people, including children, in Gaza on Sunday, the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel's military admitted to Agence France-Presse on Saturday that it had fired at ambulances in Gaza after earlier identifying them as "suspicious vehicles", but did not say if there was fire coming from the vehicles.
Ahmad Ghouri, a senior lecturer at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, told China Daily that the deaths of the medics highlight a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
"The deliberate targeting of medical personnel or facilities constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," he said. "Even in cases where there is suspicion of misuse of medical emblems or vehicles, the principle of proportionality and the obligation to verify targets must be upheld to avoid harm to civilians and humanitarian workers."
