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In yet another brazen war crime, the Israeli army has murdered eight medics, six civil defense responders, and a United Nations employee. The bodies of the first responders and the UN staff were buried in the sand, and rescuers were prevented from reaching the site for a week in an unscrupulous attempt to obstruct efforts to save and or recover the missing humanitarian teams.

The first responders were on their way to Tal al-Sultan neighborhood area of Rafah to provide emergency medical assistance to injured civilians following Israeli shelling in the area. Instead of facilitating their life-saving work, Israel targeted and mercilessly murdered the medics, destroying four ambulance vehicles and fire trucks.

This latest murder of medics brings the total number of healthcare workers murdered by Israel to 1,060. Targeting of medical personnel and humanitarian workers is strictly prohibited by Article 25 of the Geneva Conventions and is a blatant war crime, yet Israel continues to flout these laws with impunity. As the world watches in horror and condemns, yet a meaningful action remains absent.

The murder of these first responders was a premeditated war crime and a blatant violation of the International Criminal Court’s statutes, which mandate that countries respect and facilitate medical teams’ work during war time. The paramedics and rescue workers vanished on March 22 after Israeli soldiers directly targeted their ambulances and fire trucks. The systematic assault on medics and UN personnel is not only a violation of international law but also an affront to human........

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