THE PALESTINIAN RED Crescent has said it recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers killed a week ago when Israeli forces targeted ambulances in the Gaza Strip.

Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza’s civil defence agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement.

It said one medic from the Red Crescent remained missing.

The group said those killed “were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area”.

“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent medics … can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world.”

In an earlier statement the Red Crescent said the bodies “were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency also confirmed that 15 bodies had been recovered, adding that the deceased UN employee was from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

The incident occurred on 23 March in Rafah city’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood, close to the Egyptian border, just days after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza following an almost two-month-long truce.

UNWRA staff dig the bodies out of the ground UNRWA UNRWA

‘Outrage’

In a separate statement issued in Geneva, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it was “outraged at the deaths of the eight medics”.

“They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned their families; they did not,” IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said.

“International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected.”

IFRC said the incident represents the single most deadly attack on Red Cross and Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017.

Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “appalled” that the medics “were killed while carrying out their work” alongside others.

“Their bodies were identified today and have been recovered for dignified burial,” the ICRC said.

“The high number of medical personnel killed during this conflict is devastating. The ICRC strongly condemns attacks on health care workers,” it added.

1/6 First responders should never be a target. Yet today @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Defense to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that was marked with the emergency light from one of their crushed ambulances. pic.twitter.com/xFYFXWp2c6

— Jonathan Whittall (@_jwhittall) March 30, 2025

On Saturday, the Red Crescent had accused Israeli authorities of refusing to allow search operations to locate its crew.

The Israeli military acknowledged its troops had opened fire on ambulances.

It told AFP in a statement this week that its forces had “opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists”.

“A few minutes afterwards, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops” who “responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles”, it said, adding that several “terrorists” were killed.

“Some of the suspicious vehicles… were ambulances and fire trucks,” the military statement said, citing “an initial inquiry” into the incident.

It condemned “the repeated use” by “terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes”.

Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations’ humanitarian agency, said that since resumption of hostilities on 18 March, Israeli air strikes have hit “densely populated areas”, with “patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed.”

The health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 921 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed its large-scale strikes.