Fifteen medical professionals and humanitarian workers were found in a mass grave in the Tal Al-Sultan area of Rafah, a city in the south. The United Nations identified one of the victims as a UN worker, six as members of the Palestinian Civil Defence, and eight as members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, with one person still missing.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Palestine’s head, Jonathan Whittall, strongly condemned the tragic loss, emphasizing that healthcare workers should never be targeted. He described how the workers were killed over the course of seven days, with their bodies buried along with their uniforms and gloves.
Beside the bodies, emergency vehicles including an ambulance, a fire truck, and a UN car were discovered. The seven-day search for the missing workers, coordinated with Israeli authorities, concluded on Sunday. Whittall criticized how emergency teams were fired upon while searching for their missing colleagues, bearing witness to continued hostilities even against rescue operations
