9 Palestine Crimson Crescent (PRCS) medics in ambulances, in addition to some Civil Defence staff, went to assist folks in Rafah, Gaza, and disappeared on March 23 after coming underneath assault from Israeli forces.
What adopted used to be every week of Israeli obstruction till global groups had been in spite of everything in a position to go into the world the place the medics and rescue staff disappeared.
They discovered grotesque evidence of direct assaults at the humanitarian staff. One medic stays lacking.
Right here’s the whole thing we find out about how Israel killed those first responders in Gaza:
What came about to the Crimson Crescent medics in Gaza?
Israeli forces killed them.
One ambulance used to be dispatched to al-Hashaashin, Rafah, to assist folks injured by means of Israeli assaults on Sunday, March 23. Israeli squaddies fired on it, injuring the workforce.
“Within the early hours of Sunday, 23 March, our Palestine Crimson Crescent colleagues had been coming into the world of al-Hashaashin, Rafah to avoid wasting lives and got here underneath hearth,” Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the Global Federation of Crimson Pass and Crimson Crescent Societies (IFRC), advised Al Jazeera.
The PRCS then despatched an additional 3 ambulances to assist the injured folks their colleagues had been making an attempt to succeed in, and to rescue their colleagues who have been attacked.
The entire groups dispatched to enhance the preliminary ambulance did so right through sunlight hours, the Civil Defence showed.
PRCS “misplaced touch with their colleagues”, Della Longa mentioned, and started looking for them.
1/6 First responders will have to by no means be a goal. But nowadays @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Protection to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that used to be marked with the emergency mild from one in all their overwhelmed ambulances. percent.twitter.com/xFYFXWp2c6
— Jonathan Whittall (@_jwhittall) March 30, 2025
Who’re the medics Israel killed?
There have been 3 ambulance officials – who shipping the wounded and be offering emergency healthcare every now and then: Ezzedine Shaath, Mostafa Khafaga and Saleh Muamer.
There have been additionally 5 first responder volunteers: Ashraf Abu Labda, Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed al-Heila, Raed al-Sharif and Rifatt Radwan.
Ambulance officer Assad al-Nassasra continues to be lacking. “We don’t know the place he’s,” Della Longa mentioned.
“The colleagues that had been killed and located left at the back of greater than 20 kids,” he added.
Israel has killed 30 Palestinian Crimson Crescent volunteers and team of workers – humanitarian staff safe by means of global humanitarian legislation – since October 7.
The Palestine Crimson Crescent Society is devastated by means of the killing of 8 of its EMTs in Rafah, who had been focused by means of the Israeli military whilst appearing their humanitarian tasks. They had been responding to an emergency name to help the wounded following Israeli airstrikes within the… percent.twitter.com/qK79MMFA9l
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) March 30, 2025
Who else did Israel kill on this incident?
The our bodies of 14 murdered folks had been present in a shallow mass grave, in keeping with the PRCS.
8 had been known as PRCS medics, 5 had been Civil Protection staff, and one used to be a UN company worker.
30 Palestinian team of workers or volunteers had been killed since October 7 [Eyad BABA / AFP]
How had been they killed?
They had been killed “one after some other”, then buried within the sand at the side of their emergency automobiles, the UN mentioned.
“The to be had data signifies that the primary group used to be killed by means of Israeli forces on 23 March, and that different emergency and support crews had been struck one after some other over a number of hours as they searched for his or her lacking colleagues,” a spokesperson for the United Countries Place of job for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine mentioned.
“Their our bodies had been collected and buried on this mass grave,” OCHA head Jonathan Whittall mentioned from the scene.
“We’re digging them out of their uniforms, with their gloves on. They had been right here to avoid wasting lives,” he mentioned.
“Those ambulances had been buried within the sand. There’s a UN automobile right here, …[an] Israeli forces bulldozer has buried them.”
What did Israel have to mention?
The Israeli military’s global spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, mentioned the medics had now not been killed intentionally.
Regarding Israeli squaddies firing at obviously marked ambulances and UN automobiles, Shoshani wrote on X, previously Twitter, that “a number of uncoordinated automobiles had been known advancing suspiciously towards IDF troops with out headlights or emergency indicators”, now not clarifying what used to be supposed by means of “uncoordinated automobile”.
Shoshani additionally claimed with out proof that “terrorists” had been hidden amid the rescue staff and that “[Israeli] forces eradicated a Hamas army operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took phase within the October 7 bloodbath, at the side of 8 different terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
Not one of the names reported as having been recovered from the mass grave fit the title Shoshani claimed.
Soshani didn’t give an explanation for the truth that one frame used to be recovered along with his arms certain, in keeping with the Crimson Crescent in Gaza, and that Israeli bulldozers had attempted to bury the automobiles after the reality.
Israeli claims of Hamas launching assaults from clinical amenities in Gaza had been frequently “imprecise” and from time to time “contradicted by means of publicly to be had data”, UN human rights leader, Volker Turk, advised the United Countries Safety Council in January.
The IDF did 𝗻𝗼𝘁 randomly assault an ambulance on March 23. Let me stroll via what came about step by step:
1. Closing Sunday, a number of uncoordinated automobiles had been known advancing suspiciously towards IDF troops with out headlights or emergency indicators. IDF troops then…
— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) March 31, 2025
How had been their our bodies discovered?
Della Longa mentioned that, for an entire week, the IFRC, PRCS, ICRC and the UN made appeals to Israeli government to go into the world to research.
Israel blocked the requests till in spite of everything a venture used to be in a position to go into and search for the lacking rescue staff.
Video from the scene confirmed searchers digging out a number of our bodies dressed in orange emergency vests, some piled on best of one another.
One frame in a Civil Defence vest used to be pulled out of the grave just for searchers to grasp it used to be a torso and not using a legs.
What did the ICRC say?
IFRC Secretary-Common Jagan Chapagain mentioned in a commentary: “Those devoted ambulance staff had been responding to wounded folks… They wore trademarks that are supposed to have safe them; their ambulances had been obviously marked. They will have to have returned to their households; they didn’t.
“Even in probably the most advanced warfare zones, there are laws [that] may now not be clearer – civilians will have to be safe; humanitarians will have to be safe. Well being services and products will have to be safe.
“Our community is in mourning, however this isn’t sufficient… I pose a query: ‘When will this prevent?’ All events will have to prevent the killing, and all humanitarians will have to be safe.”
Della Longa identified that part the ambulances in Gaza are not practical, both because of maintaining harm or on account of the loss of gasoline.
What are others pronouncing?
UN support leader Tom Fletcher mentioned in a submit on X that the primary responders “had been killed by means of Israeli forces whilst looking to save lives. We call for solutions & justice.”
US State Division Spokesperson Tammy Bruce advised newshounds america anticipated “all events” to agree to global humanitarian legislation, with out clarifying which account of the killings, Israel’s or the UN’s, she used to be relating to.
Amnesty Global’s Mohamed Duar, spokesperson for the occupied Palestinian territory, mentioned: “In spite of their safe standing underneath the Geneva Conventions and Global Humanitarian Legislation, Israeli Forces proceed to focus on healthcare staff… Ambulances and hospitals proceed to return underneath hearth and be destroyed.”
“There’s no appreciate for humanitarians,” Della Longa advised Al Jazeera. Violence is “now not new in Gaza, however the scale and severity of what we see is stunning, horrific and now not appropriate”.
“There’s a deterioration of appreciate for global laws,” he mentioned. “That are meant to now not and will have to now not occur.”
The assault on humanitarians used to be condemned by means of many global organisations [Eyad BABA / AFP]