Bodies of 15 aid workers recovered in Gaza; 1 still missing

Fifteen emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defence and the United Nations have been recovered from a grave in the sand in the south of the Gaza Strip, UN officials said.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a social media post on X that the bodies were buried near "wrecked and well-marked vehicles," adding: "They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers and justice."

In a statement late on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was "appalled" at the deaths, which included eight of its workers.

"Their bodies were identified today and have been recovered for dignified burial. These staff and volunteers were risking their own lives to provide support to others," the ICRC said.

The Palestine Red Crescent said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defence members and one UN employee from the same area. It said Israeli forces had targeted the workers. Red Cross statements did not apportion blame for the attacks.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said one worker from the nine-strong Red Crescent group is still unaccounted for. The group went missing on March 23.

Competing claims

The Israeli military said Monday that an inquiry had found that on March 23, troops opened fire on a group of vehicles that included ambulances and fire trucks when the vehicles approached a position without prior co-ordination and without headlights or emergency signals.

It said several militants belonging to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed.

"The IDF condemns 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," it said in a statement.

It did not comment directly on the deaths of the Red Cross workers.

In a later statement to Reuters, it said it had facilitated the evacuation of the bodies from the area, which it described as an active combat zone. It did not specifically respond to questions about why the bodies were retrieved beneath the sand, nor why the vehicles were found crushed.

The incident was the single most-deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.

"I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians," said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain.

"They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked," he added.

According to the United Nations, at least 1,060 health-care workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The global body is reducing its international staff in Gaza by one-third due to staff safety concerns.