Bodies of eight Red Crescent medics recovered from mass grave in Gaza

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The bodies of eight Red Crescent medics and Palestinian rescue workers, killed over a week ago, have been recovered from a grave in southern Gaza, UN officials confirmed.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), called the act "a profound violation of human dignity" on social media.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed its "appall" at the deaths, noting the workers were risking their lives to help others.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported that one worker remains missing.

The workers had gone missing on March 23 when Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas.

The Palestine Red Crescent also found the bodies of six civil defense members and one UN employee at the same site, though the Red Cross refrained from assigning blame.

The Israeli military explained that troops opened fire on a group of vehicles, including ambulances and fire trucks, after they approached a position without prior coordination or emergency signals. Israel also condemned the use of civilian infrastructure by militant groups.

Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described the site as a "mass grave," marked by an emergency light from a crushed ambulance.

Pictures from the scene showed Red Crescent teams recovering bodies next to a mangled fire truck and UN vehicle.

Lazzarini stated that these deaths brought the total number of aid workers killed since the onset of the war to 408, marking the deadliest attack on Red Cross and Red Crescent workers since 2017. IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain condemned the attack, highlighting that these workers were humanitarians protected by their emblems.