فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced on Sunday the recovery of the bodies of 15 paramedics and volunteers who were killed in an Israeli strike targeting ambulances in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah a week ago.
The Red Crescent stated in a press release that “the number of recovered bodies has reached 15, including 8 paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent teams, 6 from the Civil Defense, and an employee of a United Nations agency.”
The Red Crescent indicated that “these paramedics and volunteers were among teams whose contact was lost after ambulances were targeted on March 23.”
“The Palestinian Red Crescent is devastated by the assassination of eight of its paramedics in Rafah. They were targeted by the Israeli occupation while performing their humanitarian duty,” the statement added.
The statement confirmed that one of their paramedics is still missing.
The Israeli army acknowledged on Saturday targeting ambulances in the Gaza Strip, claiming that these vehicles were “suspicious.” In response, Hamas condemned a “war crime” that claimed the life of a paramedic.
The incident occurred last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, where Israeli forces resumed their offensive on March 20, two days after the army resumed its aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip following a nearly two-month truce.
The Red Crescent explained that the Israeli authorities prevented a team from entering the Tal al-Sultan area to search for the paramedics, noting that they “were subjected to heavy gunfire from Israeli forces.”
In an army statement, it was mentioned that “minutes” after soldiers “eliminated several Hamas militants” by opening fire on their vehicles, “other vehicles moved suspiciously towards the soldiers.”
“The soldiers responded by opening fire on the suspicious vehicles, eliminating several Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants,” the statement added.
The Israeli army did not indicate whether gunfire was directed at the soldiers from these vehicles.
The Israeli army stated in its statement that “a preliminary investigation has established that some of the suspicious vehicles were ambulances and fire trucks,” without providing further details. The Israeli army accused “terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip” of using ambulances “for terrorist purposes.”
