[News] Red Crescent recovers bodies of missing paramedics, civil defense workers killed by Israel in Gaza's Rafah

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Red Crescent recovers bodies of missing paramedics, civil defense workers
killed by Israel in Gaza's Rafah

Israeli forces killed the first responders during an assault and siege on
Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood that began eight days ago

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

MAR 30, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/red-crescent-recovers-bodies-of-missing-paramedics-civil-defense-workers-killed-by-israel-in-gazas-rafah
(Photo credit: Reuters)

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced
<https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/156011> on 30 March the retrieval of
the bodies of 14 crew members killed by Israeli forces while under siege in
Rafah's Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood.

Rescuers from OCHA, the Red Cross, and the Civil Defense managed to reach
the neighborhood Sunday to search for the crew members, who had been
missing for eight days. The bodies of eight PRCS paramedics, five Civil
Defense crew members, and the body of a UN staffer were successfully
retrieved, PRCS said in a press release.

The rescue teams continue to search for other bodies in the neighborhood,
the statement added. Three PRCS first responders and one Civil Defense
paramedic remain missing.

“The Palestine Red Crescent Society was devastated today by the killing of
eight of its paramedics in Rafah, targeted by the Israeli army while
performing their humanitarian duties in response to a call to aid the
wounded and injured following an Israeli strike in the Hashashin area of
Rafah, Gaza Strip,” the PRCS said in a statement.
"The ninth paramedic remains missing and is believed to have possibly been
detained."

The crew members went missing on 23 March after being mobilized to Tal
al-Sultan to assist Palestinians injured by Israel's bombing and ground
assaults—those who managed to escape the onslaught reported executions of
many Palestinians by Israeli troops.

On 29 March, the Israeli military acknowledged
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-acknowledges-mistakenly-firing-on-ambulances-in-rafah-says-troops-were-targeting-hamas-vehicles/>
attacking ambulances and fire trucks in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of
Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Officials claim the troops initially opened fire "toward Hamas vehicles."
"A few minutes afterward, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward
the troops … The troops responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles,
eliminating a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists," the army
statement reads.

"After an initial inquiry, it was determined that some of the suspicious
vehicles … were ambulances and fire trucks," it adds.

On Friday, PRCS members and UN staff who made it to the site of the
massacre reported
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinian-red-crescent-recovers-paramedic-s-body-in-rafah-8-still-missing/3521968>
finding the body of the mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid al-Attar, "in
dismembered pieces."

"Our teams found torn safety equipment worn by the crew at the crime scene.
This suggests the Israeli occupation forces directly targeted the crew
during their incursion, then deliberately altered the area's features and
concealed the bodies of some civilians using bulldozers and heavy
machinery," the PRCS said in a statement.

"We call on the international community to pressure the occupation
authorities to reveal the fate of the missing personnel. We also urge the
international community and the states that are signatories to the Geneva
Conventions to take serious steps to ensure the protection of medical
teams," the PRCS said on Saturday.

Israel has killed
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250329-gaza-death-toll-nears-50300-after-israel-killed-26-more-palestinians/>
close to 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the full resumption of its
genocidal war on the strip, about half of whom are women and children.

Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza and renewed its
attacks on the strip on 18 March, killing
<https://thecradle.co/articles/only-seven-hamas-fighters-named-among-436-palestinians-killed-by-israel-in-historic-18-march-attacks>
over 400 people, the majority women and children, in just one night.

OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/30/palestine-red-crescent-says-missing-gaza-crew-either-dead-or-detained>
that since Israel broke the ceasefire, Israeli air attacks have hit
"densely populated areas," with "patients killed in their hospital beds,
ambulances shot at, first responders killed."
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