Rabat – The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced on April 29 that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have released Palestinian paramedic Assaad al-Nassasra, the sole survivor of a deadly Israeli attack that deliberately targeted a group of first responders in March.
PRCS shared footage of al-Nassasra’s emotional reunion with his colleagues after 37 days in Israeli detention. He was abducted by the IOF while performing his humanitarian duties, responding to the scene of an Israeli strike in Tel Sultan, Rafah.
Al-Nassasra, who was among at least ten Palestinian detainees that were released on Tuesday, had survived an Israeli assault in March that deliberately killed 15 emergency personnel in southern Gaza, including eight PRCS paramedics, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense agency, and one UNRWA employee.
On March 23, Palestinian organizations lost contact with these first responders after they were besieged and attacked by Israeli forces en route to their destination in Tel al-Sultan.
A harrowing eight-day search followed, culminating on Eid al-Fitr with the discovery of their executed bodies buried in shallow graves next to their destroyed ambulances. Their fate had been foreshadowed days earlier by the discovery of the mutilated body of Civil Defense member Anwar al-Attar.
As is routine for the IOF, the massacre was initially justified by claiming the responders were suspected Hamas fighters, alleging they were driving “suspicious vehicles” at night without headlights or emergency lights.
However, in early April, a recovered seven-minute video from one of the murdered medics debunked this narrative, showing the IOF targeting clearly marked Red Crescent ambulances with their lights on and personnel in reflective medical gear.
In its predictable pattern of sustaining its war crimes, the IOF investigated itself and dismissed the on PRCS paramedics as an “operational misunderstanding,” while it labeled the killing of the UNRWA employee a mere “breach of orders during a combat setting.”
The PRCS rejected the Israeli report, calling it further proof of Israel’s systematic distortion of the truth to shield its forces from accountability. “The occupation’s investigation relies on its usual false claims that Gaza’s rescue teams are linked to Hamas to justify the war crime of targeting medical missions — particularly those carrying the protected emblems of the Geneva Conventions,” said the PRCS.
As a result of Israel’s humanitarian blockade– now approaching its 60 days— the Civil Defense announced earlier this week that most of its vehicles in southern Gaza have been forced out of service due to the depletion of the fuel– deepening the already catastrophic conditions imposed by Israel.
