Rafah: The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced Sunday that the number of bodies retrieved from Rafah's Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood has risen to 14.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the PRCS stated in a press release that the bodies were recovered eight days after their fate was unknown in the southern Gaza Strip neighborhood.
The recovered bodies include eight PRCS paramedics, five rescue team members, and one United Nations staff member. These individuals went missing after Israeli occupation forces reportedly opened fire at them in the neighborhood. The joint efforts of rescue teams from PRCS, along with a crew from OCHA, the Red Cross, and the Civil Defense, were instrumental in locating the bodies. The search for other missing individuals continues.
Of the 14 bodies, eight belonged to PRCS paramedics who had been unaccounted for following intense gunfire in Rafah's al-Hashashin area. The ninth paramedic, Assad Nasasra, remains missing and may have been detained by Israeli forces. The retrieval of the bodies was challenging due to their burial in sand and decomposition.
The identified paramedics are Mustafa Khafaja, Izziddin Shaath, Saleh Mu'amar, Rifat Radwan, Mohammad Bahlul, Ashraf Abu Libdeh, Mohammad al-Hila, and Raed ash-Sharif. The violence in Rafah's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood occurred amid a renewed Israeli offensive near the Egyptian border, following the cessation of a ceasefire agreement on 18 March.
Earlier today, PRCS President Younes Al-Khatib confirmed that the fate of the crew members was unknown after being fired upon and injured by Israeli occupation forces.