At least 22 people were martyred and 45 injured in an Israeli bombing of the Red Cross office in Gaza on Friday night.
A large number of refugees were residing in the targeted building.
According to Arab media, the International Committee of the Red Cross stated on the social media app ‘X’ that on Friday and Saturday night, the Israeli army bombed its office, resulting in a large number of bodies and injured being brought to the Red Cross field hospital in the area, with some reported to be in critical condition.
The Red Cross reported that so far, the death toll has reached 22 while 45 are injured, some in serious condition. The Red Cross stated that both parties in the conflict are aware of the human rights centers, yet the Red Cross center was attacked, endangering its employees’ lives. The committee added that this serious security incident is one of many recent events; in the past few days, bullets had hit the Red Cross building during firing incidents.
Condemning the attack, the Red Cross Committee said that there is no justification for targeting civilians working for humanitarian causes.
Besides it, the Israeli army stated yesterday that 45 more people lost their lives as a result of bombings in the city of Rafah and other locations. The Israeli army claimed that several fighters were killed in clashes between the army and Hamas.
According to Arab media reports, the local residents said that the Israeli army is trying to gain full control of Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border, which has become a battleground between Israel and Hamas since early May.
Israeli forces fired heavily from planes, tanks, and naval ships along the coast, leading to a new wave of displacement from Rafah, where over a million displaced people were already residing, many of whom were forced to relocate again.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that a tank shelled the tents of displaced people in the Moasi area west of Rafah, resulting in the deaths of a large number of civilians.
On the other hand, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas reiterated that it would only accept a ceasefire initiative in Gaza that paves the way for a permanent and complete ceasefire. Hamas would not accept a partial ceasefire.
Hamas’s statement came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with an Israeli delegation on Thursday to advance ceasefire negotiations in Gaza and consider post-war plans.
Since the war started in Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has martyred more than 37,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
