Nine Red Crescent crew members were missing for a week after they came under Israeli fire in Rafah.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says 15 bodies have been found in Rafah, southern Gaza, a week after its first responders came under heavy fire from Israeli forces.
The PRCS said on Sunday that eight of the bodies have been identified as PRCS members, six as members of the Civil Defence, and one as a UN agency employee. One PRCS first responder is still missing.
The group said the those killed “were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area”.
“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent 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.”
In an earlier statement the Red Crescent said the bodies “were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition”.
PRCS President Younis al-Khatib condemned Israel for targeting its paramedics as they “fulfil 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 on Sunday.
Last week, the Israeli military told the AFP news agency that it had fired on ambulances and fire trucks – calling them “suspicious vehicles” – that arrived at a scene where it was carrying out attacks.
Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim slammed the attack on the ambulance and said the “targeted killing of rescue workers – who are protected under international humanitarian law – constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime”.
OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said since Israel broke the ceasefire in Gaza on March 18 and resumed its war on the enclave, Israeli air attacks have hit “densely populated areas”, with “patients killed in their hospital beds, ambulances shot at, first responders killed”.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that since Israel resumed its attacks, at least 921 people have been killed in the territory, adding to the more than 50,000 killed since October 7, 2023.
Israel launched its war after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, during which 1,139 people died and about 250 were taken captive into Gaza.
