Israel has been accused of focusing on help staff in Gaza after the stays of 15 folks, together with eight medics working for the Palestine Purple Crescent Society (PRCS), had been recovered following what the help organisation referred to as a “war crime”.
The PRCS stated in an announcement on Sunday the group, who got here below hearth greater than every week in the past, had been attacked “by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties”.
It stated it additionally recovered the our bodies of six civil defence members and one UN worker from the identical space, whereas a ninth medic “remains missing”.
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It named the medics, calling them “martyred”, and stated the “massacre” was a tragedy “for humanitarian work and humanity”.
The “targeting” of help staff “despite their protected status and the Red Crescent emblem can only be considered a war crime”, the assertion stated.
The Israeli army stated on Monday that an inquiry had discovered that troops had opened hearth on autos together with ambulances and hearth vans that approached a place with out prior coordination and with out headlights or emergency indicators.
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Palestinians collect the our bodies of the medics at a hospital in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
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The medics got here below Israeli hearth whereas on a rescue mission. Pic: Reuters
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Palestinians collect round a physique as they mourn medics, who got here below Israeli hearth whereas on a rescue mission. Pic: Reuters
A number of members of the militant teams Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been killed, it stated.
In an announcement, the IDF stated it condemned “the repeated use of civilian infrastructure by the terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes”.
Israel’s army didn’t remark instantly on the deaths of the Purple Crescent staff however later informed Reuters it had allowed the our bodies to be recovered from the realm, which it described as an lively fight zone.
The our bodies had been present in sand within the south of the Gaza Strip in what Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, referred to as a “mass grave”, marked with the emergency gentle from a crushed ambulance.
Mr Whittall posted footage and video of Purple Crescent groups digging within the sand for the our bodies and staff laying them out on the bottom, lined in plastic sheets.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN company for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), stated on X on Monday that the our bodies had been “discarded in shallow graves” in what he referred to as “a profound violation of human dignity”.
In an announcement late on Sunday, the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross stated it was “appalled” on the deaths of volunteers “risking their very own lives to offer assist to others. It didn’t allocate blame for the assaults.
The group went lacking on 23 March, after Israel resumed an all-out offensive towards Hamas earlier this month.
Greater than 400 help staff have been killed in Gaza for the reason that begin of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Mr Lazzarini stated.
In keeping with the UN, not less than 1,060 healthcare staff have been killed within the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The UN is decreasing its worldwide workers in Gaza by a 3rd due to security issues.
Palestinian well being authorities say greater than 50,000 folks have been killed since Israel launched its marketing campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October assault, when Hamas militants crossed the border into southern Israel, killing greater than 1,200 folks, and taking some 250 hostage.
