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UN head, Tom Fletcher, said in a post about X that the bodies were buried near “destroyed and well -marked vehicles,” adding, “They were killed by Israeli forces as they tried to save lives. We demanded answers and justice.”
The military of Israel did not directly comment on the deaths of the workers of the Red Crescent.
In a statement after Reuters, he said he had facilitated the evacuation of the bodies of the area, which he described as an active combat zone. He did not specifically answer questions about why the bodies were recovered under the sand or why the vehicles were found crushed.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa), said on the social media platform that the bodies were “discarded in superficial graves – a profound violation of human dignity.”
Lazzarini said the deaths have brought the total number of human workers killed since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to 408.
In a statement at the end of Sunday, the Red Cross International Committee said it was “shocked” with the deaths.
“Their bodies were identified today and were recovered for decent burial. These employees and volunteers were risking their own lives to provide support to others,” he said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crossing Societies (IFRC) said a worker from the nine -person red growing group has not yet been accounted for. He did not immediately comment on the details of the site where the bodies were found. The group disappeared on March 23 to take care of the injured in Rafah, after Israel resumed a total offensive against Hamas.
Palestine’s red growing said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defense members and an UN employee of the same area. He said the Israeli forces directed the workers. Red Cross statements did not attribute the blame for the attacks.
The Israeli military said on Monday that an investigation found that, on March 23, troops opened fire on a group of vehicles that included ambulances and fire trucks when vehicles approached a position without previous coordination and no emergency signs or signs.
He said that several militants belonging to Hamas and Islamic jihad were killed.
“IDF condemn the repeated use of civil infrastructure by terrorist organizations in the Gaza range, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes,” he said in a statement.
Sand
Jonathan Whittall, Gaza’s head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the place where the bodies were found as a “mass grave”, saying it had been marked with the emergency light of a crushed ambulance.
His comments about X were accompanied by photos of red -crescent teams digging in the sand to the bodies next to a mutilated fire truck and a UN vehicle.
A OCHA -Gate said that in response to Reuters issues that the burial site resembled a large lot of sand that was “clearly created by an excuator or similar machines rather than the impact of an explosion.”
“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and that other emergency and aid teams were hit after another for several hours while looking for their missing colleagues,” the -voice added.
The incident was the deadliest attack on the Red Cross or Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.
“I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to injured people. They were humanitarian,” said IFRC Secretary Jagan Chapagain.
“They used emblems that should protect them; their ambulances were clearly marked,” he added.
According to the United Nations, at least 1,060 health workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched their offensive in Gaza, after the Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Due to safety concerns, the UN is reducing its international team in Gaza in one third.
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