Palestine Red Crescent Society rescuers move a casualty into an ambulance following an attack, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said a missile from an Israeli drone destroyed one of its ambulances in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing four crew members as well as the two patients it was transporting.
The ambulance was struck at 3:35 pm local time as it was approaching Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, the Red Crescent said.
“Our colleagues were intentionally targeted while inside an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem,” the aid group said.
The Red Crescent did not release further details about the strike and what struck the ambulance. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another Israeli airstrike landed in the immediate vicinity of Al-Aqsa hospital earlier Wednesday, killing several people, Al Jazeera reported. The strikes deepened a crisis at what the United Nations has called the only functioning hospital left in central Gaza.
The Red Crescent said the crew members killed Wednesday were Yusuf Abu Ma’mar, the driver of the ambulance; Fadi Al-Maani, a medic; Islam Abu Riyala, an emergency medical worker; and Fuad Abu Khamash, a volunteer photographer. The two wounded people they were transporting also died, the aid group said.
Footage captured by a Palestinian photojournalist, Motaz Azaiza, showed the harrowing aftermath of the strike that hit the ambulance, as friends and colleagues of the victims howled in grief.
Tattered remnants of the Red Crescent emblems that the ambulance crew had been wearing were placed on top of their mangled remains.
The ambulance crew had responded to a call to help two people who had gunshot wounds, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent.
The crew had treated their injuries and were transporting them to the hospital. The ambulance had just turned off a main thoroughfare, Salah al-Din Street, and onto a back road toward the hospital when it was hit, she said.
Farsakh said the slain photographer, Abu Khamash, had volunteered to document the aid group’s efforts to provide medical care to Gaza residents under Israeli bombardment.
Farsakh said Abu Khamash was the first person she tried to contact on Wednesday when she learned that one of the group’s ambulances had been hit, hoping that he could help verify the news.
“Then I figured out that he is among the ones that were killed,” she said. “I just — it’s heartbreaking.”
The UN human rights office said in a statement Wednesday that it was “deeply concerned” that the Israeli military had “placed civilian lives at serious risk” by striking targets in Deir al-Balah, after advising thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza to relocate to the area for their safety.