For eight days, they waited. Eight days of agonising silence. Eight days of phone calls that went unanswered. Eight days of prayer and diminishing hope. For eight days the whereabouts of nine Palestinian paramedics remained unknown.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had lost contact with nine of its paramedics in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, after they responded to a call about casualties from an Israeli strike in the Hashashin area. Then, on Sunday, March 30th 2025, came the grim confirmation: eight of them were dead, killed by Israeli forces while performing their humanitarian duties. The ninth Palestinian paramedic remains missing, possibly detained.
“Not knowing the fate of our paramedic colleagues is a great tragedy, not only for us at the Palestinian Red Crescent, but also for humanitarian work and humanity (sic),” the PRCS said in a statement before the bodies were recovered. Hours later, the organisation would be mourning eight of its own: Mustafa Khafaja, Ezzedine Shaat, Saleh Muammar, Rifaat Radwan, Mohammad Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Labda, Mohammad al-Hila and Raed al-Sharif.
A desperate search for Palestinian paramedics amid silence
The week-long uncertainty about the Palestinian paramedics’ whereabouts highlighted a frustrating pattern for humanitarian organisations operating in Gaza. Despite the protection supposedly afforded by the Red Crescent emblem under international humanitarian law, medical personnel have been repeatedly targeted throughout Israel’s 18-month military campaign. The PRCS accused Israeli authorities of deliberately delaying access to the area where their colleagues had disappeared, preventing any chance of rescue or recovery.
“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent paramedics and their international emblem can only be considered a premeditated crime punishable by international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate in full view of the entire world without taking serious steps to prevent these blatant violations of international conventions,” the PRCS said.
For over a week, the organisation publicly pleaded for information about its missing team members, who had been “directly shot by the occupation forces, wounding several of them” according to their statement. The appeals fell on deaf ears in Western capitals, where condemnations of attacks on medical personnel in other conflicts have been swift and forceful.
Palestinian paramedics’ bodies recovered, questions remain
The confirmation of the deaths came through Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence. “After eight days, and in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), our crews completed the recovery of the bodies of 15 martyrs from the Civil Defence, the Palestinian Red Crescent, and a UNRWA employee, after they were massacred and directly killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah,” Mr Basal announced on March 30th.
The fate of the ninth paramedic remains unknown, compounding the anguish for the PRCS. The organisation believes this individual may have been detained by Israeli forces—a prospect that offers little comfort given documented concerns about the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention.
“The Society holds the occupation authorities fully responsible for the safety and lives of its paramedics,” the PRCS stated, calling on the international community to pressure Israeli authorities for information. Yet such calls for accountability have yielded little action throughout the protracted conflict.
A systematic targeting of healthcare
The killing of the eight Palestinian paramedics is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system. According to data from the Government Media Office in Gaza, between October 7th 2023 and March 23rd 2025, Israeli attacks have killed 1,394 medical staff, 743 aid security forces personnel, and 105 civil defence personnel.
The physical infrastructure of healthcare has been decimated. Israel has destroyed 34 hospitals and attacked 162 medical facilities, forcing 80 to shut down completely. Some 138 ambulances have been damaged or destroyed, severely hampering the ability to transport the wounded to what little medical care remains available.
The cumulative effect has been catastrophic for Gaza’s 2.3m people, who now face not only the immediate danger of bombardment but also the collapse of the systems designed to treat the wounded and ill. The targeting of medical personnel contravenes the principle that healthcare workers should be protected during conflict—a principle enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, to which Israel is a signatory.
Western silence speaks volumes
The muted international response to these attacks on Palestinian medical personnel, including paramedics, stands in stark contrast to the outcry that has met similar actions in other conflicts. Western governments that swiftly condemned the targeting of hospitals and ambulances in Ukraine have remained largely silent about the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system.
This silence has not gone unnoticed by humanitarian organisations. The PRCS specifically called out this discrepancy in its statement: “We call on the international community and the states that have signed the Geneva Conventions to take serious steps to provide protection for medical personnel.”
The plea extends beyond merely protecting healthcare workers, especially Palestinian paramedics, to ending what the PRCS describes as “the occupying state’s policy of impunity”. Yet accountability appears distant as Western powers continue to supply Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover despite the mounting civilian death toll, which has now exceeded 50,000 people, including 17,954 children.
A desperate situation worsens
As the conflict grinds through its 18th month, the broader humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. The killing of aid workers not only reduces the already insufficient medical capacity but also sends a chilling message to those still attempting to provide care: that the red crescent emblem offers no protection, and that international law provides no shield.
For Gazans observing Eid amid continued bombardment, the sacrifice of these medical workers serves as a painful reminder of their abandonment by the international community. Children under one year of age—876 of whom have been killed since October 2023—have never known peace. Some 274 newborns have been killed before they could even experience life beyond war.
The PRCS’s frustration is palpable in its calls for the international community to “fulfill their legal obligations by urgently taking the necessary measures (sic)” to stop further violations against Palestinian medical personnel and civilians. Yet these calls echo previous pleas that have gone unanswered as the death toll rises and the healthcare system collapses.
No accountability in sight
The most bitter pill for organisations like the PRCS is not just the loss of colleagues but the knowledge that these deaths will likely join the thousands of others that have not resulted in accountability. Despite multiple investigations by human rights organisations documenting apparent violations of international humanitarian law, prosecutions remain elusive.
“The Society renews its call on the international community, represented by the United Nations with all its bodies and institutions, the states party to the Geneva Conventions, and all international human rights and humanitarian organizations (sic),” to compel Israel to comply with international law, the PRCS stated. The language reflects an organisation pushed to the brink of despair, watching its staff die while the world’s most powerful nations look away.
As Gaza enters yet another month of bombardment, the eight Palestinian paramedics who lost their lives in Rafah join the ranks of what the PRCS called “heroes of humanitarian work”. Their deaths represent not just personal tragedies but a collective failure of the international system designed to protect those who, even in the darkest hours of conflict, attempt to save lives rather than take them.
For the PRCS and other humanitarian organisations in Gaza, the struggle continues—not just against the immediate dangers of bombardment and targeting but against the creeping normalisation of what would be considered atrocities in any other context. As one paramedic is still missing, the anguish of uncertainty continues for yet another family, and for colleagues who now wonder who among them might be next.
