Two Red Cross workers killed in Gaza strike: ICRC

GAZA CITY

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced Sunday that two of its staff members were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit their home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, the day before.

In a statement on X, the ICRC identified the victims as Ibrahim Eid, a Weapon Contamination Officer, and Ahmad Abu Hilal, a security guard at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah. The organization said both men were killed in a strike on Saturday, that targeted their homes.

“We are heartbroken by the death of two of our dear colleagues,” the ICRC said. “Their loss leaves a deep hole in our hearts.”

The Red Cross condemned the strike, pointing to the high civilian death toll in Gaza and reiterating its appeal for an immediate ceasefire.

“Their killing points to the intolerable civilian death toll in Gaza. The ICRC reiterates its urgent call for a ceasefire and for the respect and protection of civilians, including medical, humanitarian relief, and civil defense personnel,” the organization said.

The Israeli army has stepped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

On Saturday afternoon, the military said it had carried out strikes on more than 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.

Rescuers in Gaza said 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north.

Some people were still under the debris, he added, as "the civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs."

Two more people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he said, adding doctors were unable to save the unborn child.

Also included in the toll were the civil defence's director of operations Ashraf Abu Nar and his wife, who were killed in a strike on their home in Nuseirat, according to Bassal.

Fatal strikes were also recorded around Deir el-Balah in the centre of the territory, Beit Lahia in the north, and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.

In all, civil defence teams recovered "at least 22 martyrs, including a number of children, and dozens of injured" on Sunday, with a number of people still missing, Bassal said.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.

Gaza's health ministry said Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,939, mostly civilians.