Rafah: The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced on Sunday evening that the number of bodies retrieved from Rafah's Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood has risen to 14.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, PRCS disclosed in a press release that the bodies included eight PRCS paramedics, five rescue team members, and one United Nations staff member. These individuals went missing after Israeli occupation forces reportedly opened fire on them in the southern Gaza Strip neighborhood.
The PRCS elaborated that the recovery of the bodies was made possible through the combined efforts of rescue teams, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Red Cross, and the Civil Defense. These teams persistently searched the area for missing personnel. Among the retrieved bodies, eight paramedics were found after contact was lost due to intense gunfire in Rafah's al-Hashashin area. The ninth paramedic, Assad Nasasra, remains missing and may have been detained by the occupation forces.
The PRCS noted the challenges faced in retrieving the bodies, which were buried in sand and showed signs of decomposition. The identified PRCS paramedics are Mustafa Khafaja, Izziddin Shaath, Saleh Mu'amar, Rifat Radwan, Mohammad Bahlul, Ashraf Abu Libdeh, Mohammad al-Hila, and Raed ash-Sharif.
The incident occurred amid renewed Israeli offensives in the southern region, near the Egyptian border, following Israel's unilateral decision to end the ceasefire agreement and resume bombardments of Gaza on March 18. Earlier, PRCS President Younes Al-Khatib highlighted the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the crew members, who were directly targeted and injured by Israeli forces in the neighborhood.
