Since final week, 9 Purple Crescent crew members have been lacking after they got here underneath Israeli fireplace in Rafah.
The president of the Palestine Purple Crescent Society (PRCS) has condemned Israel for focusing on its paramedics as they “fulfil their humanitarian mission”.
Throughout a information convention in Ramallah, occupied West Financial institution on Sunday, Younis al-Khatib stated the search to seek out 9 lacking group members in Gaza is ongoing.
The PRCS misplaced contact with a crew on March 23, after they got here underneath heavy Israeli fireplace in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
“These souls usually are not mere numbers. If this incident [happened] anyplace else, the entire world would have moved heaven and earth to reveal this warfare crime,” al-Khatib stated.
He added that, two days in the past, a rescue group was in a position to attain the scene the place the crew members went lacking with the assistance of the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and was in a position to retrieve the physique of a crew member, which had been buried.
Nonetheless, rescue groups had been unable to research whether or not the remaining crew members had been alive.
“There are a variety of eventualities for what occurred… After a couple of week of dropping communication with our crew – both they’ve been killed or detained by the Israeli occupation forces,” al-Khatib stated.
‘Suspicious autos’
Final week, the Israeli army advised the AFP information company that it had fired on ambulances and fireplace vehicles – calling them “suspicious autos” – that arrived at a scene the place it was finishing up assaults.
Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim slammed the assault on the ambulance and stated the “focused killing of rescue employees – who’re protected underneath worldwide humanitarian regulation – constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a warfare crime”.
OCHA chief Tom Fletcher stated since Israel broke the ceasefire in Gaza on March 18 and resumed its warfare on the enclave, Israeli air assaults have hit “densely populated areas”, with “sufferers killed of their hospital beds, ambulances shot at, first responders killed”.
Gaza’s Ministry of Well being introduced on Saturday that since Israel resumed its assaults, not less than 921 folks have been killed within the territory, including to the greater than 50,000 killed since October 7, 2023.
Israel launched its warfare after the Hamas assault on southern Israel on October 7, throughout which 1,139 folks died and about 250 had been taken captive into Gaza.
