The ‘executions’ reported below have a precedent. In June 2018, Palestinian paramedic Razan Al-Najjar, was murdered by IDF snipers.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0week after a group of aid workers disappeared in Gaza\u2019s southern town of Rafah, the\u00a0Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS)\u00a0says they are believed to have been \u201cexecuted\u201d by Israeli forces.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n A group of 15 paramedics and rescue workers from PRCS\u00a0and Gaza\u2019s Civil Defense \u201cvanished” on March 22 in the Tal Sultan neighborhood in\u00a0Rafah following an incident in which Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks.<\/p>\n They had arrived in response to an Israeli bombing in Rafah.<\/p>\n In a Saturday statement, PRCS\u00a0said, “So far, no trace of our team members\u00a0has been\u00a0found.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday (March 28), we discovered the four ambulance vehicles completely destroyed and buried in the sand,\u201d PRCS said, adding that they are believed to have been executed.<\/p>\n Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said that the body of one emergency worker had been found.<\/p>\n Basal said that when Civil Defense and Red Crescent teams were finally granted access to the area, they found \u201cmassive destruction\u201d and widespread bulldozing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found our vehicles and the Red Crescent vehicles destroyed,\u201d and subsequently, the body of one worker that had been buried by bulldozers was retrieved, he added.<\/p>\n In a report on Saturday, al-Jazeera also cited witnesses as saying that Israeli forces had killed and buried the team of paramedics and rescue workers who went to Rafah last week.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military said in a statement that on that day, its forces had opened fire at \u201csuspicious vehicles\u201d advancing toward troops without prior coordination.<\/p>\n Basem Naim, a member of Hamas\u2019s political bureau, said it was \u201ca deliberate and brutal massacre against civil defense and Palestinian Red Crescent teams in the city of Rafah.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, 19 PRCS members have been killed while on duty, according to the society.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot bear to add more names to this tragic list,\u201d a spokesperson for the society said Thursday.<\/p>\n In a separate incident, Israeli forces killed one member of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) and injured six others \u201cas meals were being distributed\u201d in Gaza on Thursday.<\/p>\n