Gaza rescuers say recovered 14 bodies after Israel fire on ambulances

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of 14 rescuers killed in Israeli military fire on ambulances in the Gaza Strip one week ago.

"The number of recovered bodies has risen to 14 so far, including eight EMTs (emergency medical technicians) from the Palestine Red Crescent teams, five civil defence personnel and an employee from the United Nations agency," the group said in a statement, referring to those killed when Israeli forces had fired at ambulances on March 23.

It did not specify which UN agency the deceased employee had worked for.

"The bodies were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition," the Red Crescent said.

The incident occurred in Rafah city's Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood just days into a renewed Israeli offensive in the southern area, close to the Egyptian border, after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza on March 18 following an almost two-month-long truce.

On Saturday, the Red Crescent had accused Israeli authorities of refusing to allow search operations to locate its crew.

The Israeli military acknowledged its troops had opened fire on ambulances.

It told AFP in a statement this week that its forces had "opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists".

"A few minutes afterwards, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops" who "responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles", it said, adding that several "terrorists" were killed.

The military did not say whether there was fire coming from the vehicles.

"Some of the suspicious vehicles... were ambulances and fire trucks," the military statement said, citing "an initial inquiry" of the incident.

It condemned "the repeated use" by "terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes".

Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that since March 18, Israeli air strikes have hit "densely populated areas", with "patients killed in their hospital beds. Ambulances shot at. First responders killed."

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 921 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed its large-scale strikes.