Tragic Incident in Rafah: Humanitarian Workers Targeted
In the early hours of last Sunday, as Israeli forces closed in on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a dedicated ambulance crew set out with the noble mission of evacuating civilians who had been injured by relentless Israeli shelling. Unfortunately, during their critical operation, the ambulance itself came under fire, resulting in injuries to the crew members.
In response to this dire situation, several additional ambulances and a firefighting truck rushed to the location, as reported by the Palestine Red Crescent Society. A United Nations vehicle also joined the effort, bringing the total number of dispatched personnel to seventeen. However, after that moment, all communication went silent.
It took a harrowing five days of negotiations between the United Nations and the Israeli military before safe passage was granted to search for the missing individuals. Once clearance was finally received, U.N. officials reported that the retrieval team discovered 15 deceased individuals over the weekend, with many of the bodies found hastily buried in a mass grave.
On Monday, the United Nations issued a statement directly attributing the deaths to Israeli forces—a rare and significant move by the organization, which often refrains from explicitly assigning blame in such complex situations. “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives,” stated Tom Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, in a post on X. “We demand answers & justice.”
The Red Crescent, alongside the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, emphasized that all those who lost their lives were humanitarian workers performing their duties and should never have been subjected to such attacks. The Red Crescent condemned the killings as a war crime and has called for accountability for these tragic events.
