Bodies of missing aid workers found in Gaza ‘mass grave’ following Israeli attacks

The body of a fifteenth person, a civil defense worker, recovered last Thursday from the site, after the PRC said that they were initially denied access to the area. CNN has communicated with the Israeli army.

In response to the initial incident, the Israeli army said he had shot at the ambulances and fire trucks because the militants of the Islamic Jihad and the militants of the Palestinian Jihad were used as roofs.

Help and UN organizations have expressed their indignation for attacks, that the International Red Cross Federation and Crescent Red said they were the “most mortal” for IIIF workers in almost a decade.

“This massacre of our team is a tragedy not only for us in the Palestine Society Red Luna, but also for humanitarian work and humanity,” PCRs said in his statement, calling for the guidance of his doctors “a war crime” that is punished with international law.

The attacks come in the middle of Israel’s renewed assault on the enclave and, as its full humanitarian aid blocks approach the brand of a month.

Ocha, the UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, said the bodies were recovered after a “complex rescue operation of a week” that involved using excavators and heavy machinery to dig up to victims and their vehicles mistreated from under the sand.

“Health workers should never be an objective. And yet we are here today, digging up a massive tomb of lifeguards and paramedics,” Jonathan Whittall, head of Unocha in the occupied Palestinian territories, said from the site.

The video shared by Unocha showed an excavator digging through dirt and debris in motion as emergency responders used shovels to reach the victims. Several bodies were seen from the sand, some with PRCs and showing signs of decomposition.

“One by one, they were beaten, they were beaten, their bodies were gathered and buried,” Whittall said.

“We are digging them with their uniforms, with their gloves on.”

Ambulances, as well as UN vehicles and civil defense, were found crushed and buried under the sand, added Whittall, accusing Israeli forces of trying to cover up the scene.

CNN has communicated with the Israeli army to comment.

According to PRC, their humanitarian workers were sent to the Rafah Al-Hahashin area on March 23 to respond to Israeli attacks when they were assaults.

“The Israeli forces besieged the area, which led to (the) complete loss of communication with our teams,” said the PRCs.

Hours later, Gaza’s civil defense said that six of his staff also disappeared after being sent to the same area after what he described as a “sudden incursion by the Israeli occupation forces, the murder and the injuries of dozens, and the siege” of the PRC vehicles.

The Israeli army told CNN previously that their forces had opened fire that day in “suspicious vehicles”, including ambulances and fire trucks, which advanced towards troops without prior coordination, use of headlights or emergency signals.

He said that he had “eliminated” a series of Hamas and militants of the Islamic Jihad firing vehicles and convicted that he said it was “the repeated use of civil infrastructure by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes.”

The attacks occurred less than a week after Israel renewed its assault through the strip on March 18, breaking one week’s fire with Hamas. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed at least 921 Palestinians and wounded more than 2000, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. CNN has no way of independently verifying the numbers and the Israeli government does not allow foreign journalists to enter independently in Gaza.

The news also follows Israel’s decision before the high fire collapsed to block the humanitarian aid of entering the enclave, in what he described as a movement to pressure Hamas to accept new terms for an extension of the high fire instead of proceeding with phase two of the truce.

Unocha and Aid groups accuse Israel of violating international law by blocking the help flow in Gaza and using hunger as a weapon of war. The same organizations have accused Israel of restricting or creating obstacles to the entry of aid throughout the war.

‘Health services must be protected’

International aid and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly condemned the attacks of the Israeli army against medical and personal facilities.

The hospitals in Gaza, including Nasser’s medical complex, the largest hospital in the enclave, have seen intense bombings and raids of the Israeli forces that accuse the facilities to house Hamas agents.

“The orientation of the occupation to the doctors of the Red Crescent … can only be considered a punishable war crime with international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate in the eyes of the entire world,” PCRS said.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s health officials said that the number of deaths in Gaza since October 7 has exceeded 50,000, marking a gloomy milestone for an endless war in sight.