Hundreds march in West Bank against killings of Palestinian medics

RAMALLAH (AFP): Hundreds of Palestinian Red Crescent staff marched in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to protest the killing of medical workers in Gaza over the past 19 months of war.

Gathering in the city’s Clock Square, medical personnel, support staff and volunteers wore white and orange vests and waved flags bearing the Red Crescent’s emblem.

The demonstration marked World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, usually observed on May 8, and called for the “protection for medical and humanitarian workers.”

In a statement released Monday, the Red Crescent said 48 of their staff members have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, 2023 — including 30 who “were killed while performing their humanitarian duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem.”

Protesters carried symbolic white shrouds bearing the names and pictures of the dead, as well as signs demanding the release of three staff members who have been detained by the Israeli army for over a year.

Some 1,400 humanitarian and medical workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the statement, which added that “dozens of medical personnel working in Gaza… were detained while performing their humanitarian duties.”

It highlighted a particularly deadly attack in March in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, when 15 first responders including eight Red Crescent paramedics were killed by the Israeli army.

The first responders were answering distress calls after Israeli air strikes.

The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.

An Israeli military investigation, the results of which were published, acknowledged “professional failures” and “violations of orders” during the shooting.