“Large caliber” gunfire damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced people, leaving 22 dead and 45 injured, the organization said on Friday evening. social network
“This incident caused a massive influx of victims to the nearby Red Cross field hospital” which “received 22 dead and 45 injured,” writes the ICRC, which denounces the “numerous serious incidents” of in recent days “which endanger the lives of humanitarians and civilians”.
The Israeli army intensified its strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, in which at least 30 Palestinians were killed according to doctors, and exchanged new cross-border fire with Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Ministry of Health of the government of the Gaza Strip, territory led by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, reported 25 dead and 50 injured, accusing the Israelis of having “targeted the tents of displaced civilians in Al-Mawasi », area in the south of the Gaza Strip, near Rafah.
For his part, an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP that “an initial investigation suggests that there is nothing to indicate that a strike was carried out by the IDF (Israeli army, Editor’s note) in the humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi”. “The incident is being investigated,” the spokesperson added.
According to the ICRC, the “large caliber shots landed a few meters from the offices and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon.” “This is one of several serious security incidents that have occurred in recent days. Stray bullets have already hit ICRC structures,” the organization said.
“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, the location of which is known to parties to the conflict and which are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, endangers the lives of civilians and Red Cross personnel,” she also emphasizes.
The organization recalls that under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict have the obligation to take “all possible precautions” to avoid loss of life among the civilian population, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, including humanitarian facilities.
