Red Crescent under fire: 49 of its personnel martyred since the start of the Gaza war

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the Israeli occupation army’s targeting of the Palestinian Red Crescent headquarters in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Sunday, describing the attack as “horrific.”

This came in a post on the X platform, in which he offered his condolences to the families of the workers killed in the attack, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured, and reiterating his call to stop targeting medical and humanitarian personnel, demanding an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”

At dawn on Sunday, three Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli attack targeting a school housing displaced persons and a building belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Khan Yunis, which led to a fire on the first floor of the building, according to a statement from the society.

In the same context, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory stated that the Israeli occupation forces have killed “at least 49 Palestinian Red Crescent personnel and 136 civil defense personnel” since the start of the war 666 days ago, expressing “deep shock and outrage” at the continued killing of emergency workers.

The UN office confirmed that the targeting of the Red Crescent facility on August 3 resulted in the death of one employee and the injury of three others, stressing “the need for an independent investigation into all cases of civilian deaths,” and considering that “the deliberate killing of humanitarian workers may amount to war crimes.”