Cnn
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The bodies of more than a dozen rescue were found in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave”, a week after having disappeared after the attacks by Israeli forces.
Eight of the 14 bodies recovered Sunday from the site of the southern Rafah region were identified as members of Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), five as a civil defense, and one as an employee of the United Nations, the PRC said in a statement. A PRCS doctor remains missing.
The body of a fifteenth person, a civil defense worker, was found last Thursday on the site, after the PRCs said that they initially refused access to the region. CNN contacted the Israeli army.
Last week, the PRCs said that nine of his emergency medical technicians had been missing since March 23 following an incident in which Israeli forces shot ambulances and fire trucks in southern Rafah.
In response to the initial incident, the Israeli army said it had shot the ambulances and fire trucks because they were used as a cover by Hamas and activists from the Palestinian Islamic jihad.
Aid organizations and the UN expressed their indignation in the face of attacks, which, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, were the “singles” for IFRC workers in almost a decade.
“This massacre of our team is a tragedy not only for us at Palestine Red Crescent Society, but also for humanitarian work and humanity,” said PCRS in its declaration, qualifying the targeting of its doctors “a war crime” punishable by virtue of international law.
The attacks are involved in the middle of the renewed assault of Israel against the enclave and as its complete blockade of humanitarian aid is approaching the bar of one month.
Buried under the sand
OCHA, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination, said that the bodies had been recovered after a “complex rescue and a week” operation that involved the use of bulldozers and heavy machines to find the victims and their beaten vehicles from sub -Sand.
“Health agents should never be a target. And yet we are here today, digging a mass tomb of first stakeholders and paramedics,” said Jonathan Whittall, head of UNCOCHA in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The video shared by the UNOCHA showed a bulldozer digging through dirt and moving debris while emergency speakers used shovels to reach the victims. Several bodies have been seen from sand, some wearing PRC vests and showing signs of decomposition.
The first information indicates that the first team of humanitarian workers sent to the region was killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and other emergency aid teams were struck during the following several hours while they were looking for their missing colleagues, said Unicha.
“One by one, they were struck, they were struck, their bodies were gathered and buried,” said Whittall. “We excavate them in their uniforms, with their gloves.”
Ambulances, as well as UN and civil defense vehicles, were found crushed and buried under the sand, added Whittall, accusing the Israeli forces of trying to hide the scene.
CNN contacted the Israeli army to comment.
According to PRCs, their humanitarian workers were sent to the Rafah Al-Hashin region on March 23 to respond to Israeli attacks when they were attacked.
“Israeli forces besieged the region, leading to (the) complete communication of communication with our teams,” said the PRCs.
A few hours later, the Civil Defense of Gaza said that six of its employees also disappeared after being sent to the same area following what he described as a “sudden incursion by Israeli occupation forces, the murder and injury of dozens, and the Asenieur” of PRCS.
The Israeli army told CNN earlier that its forces opened fire that day on “suspicious vehicles”, including ambulances and fire trucks, which progressed to troops without prior coordination, the use of headlights or emergency signals.
He said that he had “eliminated” a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists by shooting vehicles and condemned what he claimed to be “the repeated use of civil infrastructure by terrorist organizations of the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes”.
The attacks occurred less than a week after Israel renewed its assault through the strip on March 18, breaking a ceasefire for several weeks with Hamas. Since then, the Israeli attacks have killed at least 921 Palestinians and injured more than 2,000 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas. CNN has no way of independently checking the Israeli figures and government does not allow foreign journalists to enter independently in Gaza.
The news also follows Israel’s decision before the ceasefire has collapsed to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, in what it described as a transition to Hamas pressure to accept new terms for an extension of the ceasefire rather than proceeding in phase two of the break.
UNOCHA and help groups accuse Israel of having violated international law by blocking the flow of aid in Gaza and the use of famine as a weapon of war. The same organizations have accused Israel of restricting or creating obstacles to the entrance to help throughout the war.
International Aid and Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly condemned the Israeli army attacks on medical facilities and staff.
“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of international humanitarian law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarian workers must be protected. Health services must be protected,” Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of IFRC said on Sunday.
Gaza hospitals – including the Nasser medical complex, the largest functional enclosure hospital – have seen intense bombings and raids of Israeli forces accusing the facilities of hosting Hamas agents.
About 400 humanitarian workers, including teachers, doctors and nurses, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the enclave since October 7, 2023, according to the last OCHA update published on Tuesday. The PRC says that the number of its employees killed according to the Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 has now reached 27.
“The targeting by the occupation of the doctors of the Red Crescent … cannot be considered as a war crime punishable by international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the whole world,” said PCRS.
Meanwhile, Gaza health officials said the number of deaths in Gaza since October 7 had exceeded 50,000, marking a dark step for an endless war in sight.
