GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Gaza’s directorate of medical services has called on the international community to open an urgent investigation into the Israeli occupation army’s targeting and killing of paramedics in the Gaza Strip, including an attack that killed three of them last night.
In a statement on Tuesday, the directorate has mourned three members of its ambulance and emergency department, who were killed last night by a tank shell while searching for survivors beneath the rubble of a building previously targeted by the Israeli army in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood.
The slain paramedics are Hussein Muhaisen (director of the ambulance and emergency services in Gaza governorate), Wael al-Attar (paramedic), and Baraa Afana (volunteer paramedic), according to the directorate.
The directorate affirmed that an Israeli tank fired a projectile directly at them during the presence in the area of the bombed house, adding that another ambulance crew’s attempt to reach the three paramedics was met with fire from Israeli tanks and drones.
“After repeated attempts, our teams were able this morning to recover the martyrs’ bodies from the bombed site, several hours after the incident occurred,” the directorate said.
For its part, the Hamas Movement has described the Israeli persistence in targeting ambulance crews, who are protected under international law, and its killing of three paramedics last night as a “complex war crime that compounds the Zionist occupation’s already egregious record of violations.”
“Targeting those who rescue victims represents an unprecedented level of brutality and criminality and confirms the occupation’s attempt to choke off all means of survival and rescue in Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement today.
