The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of 14 rescuers killed in Israeli military fire on ambulances in the Gaza Strip one week ago.
“The number of recovered bodies has risen to 14 so far, including eight EMTs (emergency medical technicians) from the Palestine Red Crescent teams, five civil defence personnel and an employee from the United Nations agency,” the group said in a statement, referring to those killed when Israeli forces had fired at ambulances on March 23.
It did not specify which UN agency the deceased employee had worked for.
“The bodies were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition,” the Red Crescent said.
The incident occurred in Rafah city’s Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood just days into a renewed Israeli offensive in the southern area, close to the Egyptian border, after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza on March 18 following an almost two-month-long truce.
On Saturday, the Red Crescent had accused Israeli authorities of refusing to allow search operations to locate its crew.
The Israeli military acknowledged its troops had opened fire on ambulances.
Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since March 18, Israeli air strikes have hit “densely populated areas”, with “patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 921 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed its large-scale strikes.
