A Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff member who went missing in late March when 15 humanitarian workers were killed by Israeli soldiers is being detained by the occupation authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Sunday.
The ICRC spokesperson in Gaza, Hisham Mhanna, confirmed to Reuters that it had received information that PRCS paramedic Assad Al-Nsasrah is being held in an Israeli detention centre.
“As per standard practice, we informed the families immediately. In this case, we also informed the Palestine Red Crescent Society as they have special standing as a partner of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” he explained. The Israeli occupation army did not immediately comment.
Mhanna said that the ICRC has not been granted access to Nsasrah, who until Sunday had been declared missing. Nor, he added, has it been able to visit any of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails since 7 October, 2023.
The PRCS demanded in a post on social media the immediate release of Nsasrah, who it said was “forcibly abducted” while carrying out humanitarian duties. It pointed out that Nsasrah and his colleagues came under heavy gunfire, which led to the killing of eight of them in a “grave violation” of international humanitarian law.
The bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers from the PRCS, the Civil Emergency Service and the UN were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza in March. The UN and the Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them after they were dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes. This was confirmed by video footage recovered from one of the bodies, leading to the Israeli army to change its account of the deadly incident.
The Israeli military referred Reuters to its statement from last Monday, in which it said that a thorough inquiry into the incident was still underway and that it would provide further details only once the investigation is complete.
The only known survivor of the incident, PRCS paramedic Munther Abed, said soldiers had opened fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles. Video evidence has confirmed this.
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