Chicago – March 30, 2025
More than a dozen aid workers have been found dead in southern Gaza, in what the United Nations has called a “mass grave.” The bodies were discovered a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), 14 bodies were recovered on Sunday in the Rafah area. Eight of them were PRCS members, five were civil defense workers, and one was a UN employee. Another PRCS medic is still missing. Last Thursday, a fifteenth body, also a civil defense worker, was found at the site. PRCS said they were first denied access to the area before being allowed to recover the bodies.
The aid workers disappeared on March 23 after Israeli forces fired on ambulances and fire trucks in southern Rafah. Israel’s military claimed it targeted the vehicles because they were being used as cover by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
Aid groups and the UN have condemned the attacks. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called it the deadliest incident for its workers in nearly ten years. PRCS described the killings as a “war crime” under international law, saying, “This massacre of our team is a tragedy for humanitarian work and humanity.”
The attacks happened as Israel continues its military operations in Gaza and as the blockade of humanitarian aid to the region nears one month.
