2 paramedics killed in Israeli airstrike on ambulance in Rafah

By Mohammed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Two paramedics were killed in an Israel airstrike targeting an ambulance in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave said Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said that two members of the ambulance teams affiliated with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were killed as their ambulance was targeted while heading to evacuate the wounded and deceased people in the Abu al-Sa’id roundabout area in Tel al-Sultan.

The society said on X: “The PRCS paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna were killed as a result of the Israeli occupation's direct bombing of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance in the Tal Sultan area, west of #Rafah, while they were performing their humanitarian duty,”

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,170 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 81,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala