The Palestine Red Crescent said it had also recovered the bodies of six civil defence members and one UN employee from the same area. It said Israeli forces had targeted the workers. Red Cross statements did not apportion blame for the attacks.
Palestinians cover the grave of a group of victims of Israeli army strikes after their funeral in Khan Younis last month.Credit: AP
The Israeli military said on Monday that an inquiry had found that on March 23, troops opened fire on a group of vehicles that included ambulances and fire trucks when they approached a position without prior co-ordination, and without headlights or emergency signals.
It said several militants belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed.
“The IDF condemns 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,” it said in a statement.
Mound of sand
Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the site where the bodies were found as a “mass grave”, saying it had been marked with the emergency light from a crushed ambulance.
His comments on X were accompanied by pictures of Red Crescent teams digging for the bodies next to a mangled fire truck and a UN vehicle.
An OCHA spokesperson said in response to Reuters questions that the burial site resembled a large mound of sand which was “clearly created by a bulldozer or similar machinery rather [than] the impact of a blast”.
“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues,” the spokesperson said.
The incident was the single most deadly attack on Red Cross or Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.
“I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians,” said IFRC secretary-general Jagan Chapagain.
“They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked,” he added.
The UN estimates at least 1060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Due to safety concerns, the organisation is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third.
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Meanwhile, the Israeli military indicated it could soon launch another major offensive in Rafah and ordered most of Gaza’s southernmost city to be evacuated.
At least 140,000 Palestinians were affected by the evacuation order, UNRWA head Lazzarini said.
“People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives,” he wrote.
“This is causing panic, anxiety & uncertainty on the first day of Eid, a time to be with family & loved ones,” he added. Eid al-Fitr is normally a festive Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war last month. At the beginning of March, it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement.
Reuters, AP
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