The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.
Eight of the 14 bodies recovered Sunday from the site in the southern Rafah area were identified as members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), five as civil defense, and one as a UN agency employee, PRCS said in a statement. One PRCS medic remains missing.
Last week, PRCS said nine of its emergency medical technicians had been missing since March 23 following an incident in which Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks in southern Rafah.
In response to the initial incident, the Israeli military said it had fired on the ambulances and fire trucks because they were being used as cover by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
Aid organizations and the UN have expressed outrage over the attacks, which the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said were the “single most deadly” for IFRC workers in almost a decade.
“This massacre of our team is a tragedy not only for us at the Palestine Red Crescent Society, but also for humanitarian work and humanity,” PCRS said in its statement, calling the targeting of its medics “a war crime” punishable under international law.
The attacks come amid Israel’s renewed assault on the enclave and as its complete blockade of humanitarian aid nears the one-month mark.
Buried beneath the sand
OCHA, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the bodies were recovered after a “complex, week-long rescue operation” that involved using bulldozers and heavy machinery to unearth the victims and their battered vehicles from under sand.
“Health workers should never be a target. And yet, we’re here today, digging up a mass grave of first responders and paramedics,” Jonathan Whittall, the head of UNOCHA in the occupied Palestinian territories, said from the site.
Video shared by the UNOCHA showed a bulldozer digging through dirt and moving debris as emergency responders used shovels to reach the victims. Several bodies were seen being pulled from sand, some wearing PRCS vests and showing signs of decomposition.
Early information indicates the first team of aid workers dispatched to the area were killed by Israeli forces on March 23 and other emergency aid crews were struck over the following several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues, UNOCHA said.
“One by one, they were hit, they were struck, their bodies were gathered and buried,” Whittall said. “We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on.”
Ambulances, as well as UN and civil defense vehicles, were found crushed and buried under the sand, Whittall added, accusing Israeli forces of trying to cover up the scene.
According to the PRCS, their aid workers were dispatched to Rafah’s Al-Hashashin area on March 23 to respond to Israeli attacks when they came under assault.
“Israeli forces besieged the area, leading to (the) complete loss of communication with our teams,” PRCS said.
Hours later, Gaza’s Civil Defense said that six of its staff also went missing after being dispatched to the same area following what it described as a “sudden incursion by the Israeli occupation forces, the killing and injuring of dozens, and the besieging” of PRCS vehicles.
It said it had “eliminated” a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants by firing on the vehicles and condemned what it claimed was “the repeated use of civilian infrastructure by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the use of medical facilities and ambulances for terrorist purposes.”
The news also follows Israel’s decision before the ceasefire collapsed to block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, in what it described as a move to pressure Hamas into accepting new terms for an extension of the ceasefire rather than proceed with phase two of the truce.
UNOCHA and aid groups accuse Israel of violating international law by blocking the flow of aid into Gaza and of using starvation as a weapon of war. The same organizations have accused Israel of restricting or creating hurdles to the entry of aid throughout the war.
‘Health services must be protected’
International aid and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly condemned the Israeli military’s attacks on medical facilities and personnel.
“Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected,” Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC, said in a statement on Sunday.
Hospitals in Gaza – including Nasser Medical Complex, the enclave’s largest functioning hospital – have seen intense bombardment and raids from Israeli forces accusing the facilities of harboring Hamas operatives.
About 400 aid workers, including teachers, doctors and nurses, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the enclave since October 7, 2023, according to OCHA’s latest update released Tuesday. The PRCS says the number of its staff killed in line of duty by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023 has now reached 27.
“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,” PCRS said.
Meanwhile, Gaza health officials said the death toll in Gaza since October 7 has surpassed 50,000, marking a grim milestone for a war with no end in sight.