A Palestinian paramedic who has been lacking since a bloodbath of medics and rescue staff by Israeli troops in Gaza final month is being detained in Israel, in response to the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross (ICRC).
The whereabouts of Assad al-Nsasrah, a Palestinian paramedic, had been unknown for weeks since an incident on 23 March when staff from the Palestinian Pink Crescent (PRCS) and Palestinian civil defence got here beneath hearth as they drove ambulances to rescue injured colleagues within the southern metropolis of Rafah.
Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue staff, together with at the very least one United Nations worker, had been killed within the assault by Israeli troops. The UN has mentioned they had been intentionally shot “one after the other” and the our bodies, together with the rescue autos, had been then buried with a bulldozer in a sandy pit, in what seems to have been an try to cowl up the killings. Witnesses who uncovered the our bodies mentioned the employees had been discovered nonetheless of their uniforms and a few had their fingers tied.
The Pink Crescent referred to as the assault on its staff a “grave violation of worldwide regulation” and has referred to as for a global investigation.
Nsasrah, 47, from Gaza, who had been working for Pink Crescent for 16 years, was among the many medics within the ambulances caught up within the ambush, and he had not been seen since. In an interview with the Guardian, one other survivor, the Pink Crescent volunteer Munther Abed, 27, mentioned he had seen Nsasrah being taken away alive and blindfolded by Israeli officers on the scene of the killings.
On Sunday, the ICRC mentioned it had “obtained data that the PRCS medic Assad al-Nsasrah has been detained in an Israeli place of detention”. The ICRC spokesperson gave no additional particulars on the place Nsasrah was being held and confirmed that Israel had not granted entry to go to him.
“The ICRC has not been in a position to go to any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli locations of detention since 7 October 2023,” mentioned the spokesperson. “The ICRC continues to name for entry to all locations of detention and reiterates publicly and privately that every one detainees should at all times be handled humanely and with dignity.”
In an announcement, PRCS referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to demand the discharge of Nsasrah, a father of six, stating that he had been “forcibly kidnapped whereas finishing up his humanitarian duties”.
There was no quick remark from the Israel navy.
The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) have confronted mounting strain over inconsistencies of their account of the assault. They’d initially claimed troops opened hearth on autos that had been “advancing suspiciously” with out headlights or emergency alerts.
Nevertheless, the IDF needed to backtrack after cell phone footage, from a medic who was amongst these killed on the scene, confirmed the ambulances – clearly marked with the Pink Crescent emblem – driving with flashing pink emergency lights and headlights on their autos.
Abed, the medic who survived the assault, described how he was held for a number of hours by Israeli forces after the ambulances got here beneath hearth. He mentioned he was totally stripped, overwhelmed once more and interrogated about his previous earlier than he was lastly launched.
The IDF mentioned they had been now re-examining “operational data” to grasp why the preliminary account had been “mistaken”, and that an investigation was being carried out.
They added {that a} preliminary inquiry had indicated “troops opened hearth as a result of a perceived risk after a earlier encounter within the space, and that six of the people killed within the incident had been recognized as Hamas terrorists”. Nevertheless, none of these killed within the assault had been armed and no proof has but been introduced that any of these killed had been Hamas militants.
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