**ANKARA**
The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) denounced the killing by Israel of Palestinian medics and first responders who were on a rescue mission in the southern Gaza Strip.
"The deadly attack against eight Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance workers in Gaza while on duty is deplorable," Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote late Monday on X. "We mourn the deaths of these colleagues, and we urge for an immediate end to attacks on health and humanitarian workers.”
Ghebreyesus raised WHO’s grave concerns "about the well-being of ambulance worker Assad Al-Nassasra, who is still missing."
The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced Sunday the recovery of 14 bodies after the Israeli attack. The victims included eight Red Crescent workers, five Civil Defense personnel and a staff member from a UN agency.
It came days after the Palestinian Civil Defense reported recovering the body of a team member who was killed by Israeli forces, raising the death toll from the attack to 15.
The medics were targeted March 23 by the Israeli army as they headed to provide first aid to the victims of an Israeli shelling in the Al-Hashashin area.
The Israeli attack in Rafah against the Palestine Red Crescent and the Civil Defense highlighted the dangers faced by humanitarian workers in Gaza, who risk their lives to save others and deliver aid.
The horrific crime triggered wide condemnation from international rights and UN groups, who demanded answers for the killings.
Israel began a surprise aerial campaign on Gaza on March 18 and has since killed more than 1,000 victims and injured over 2,000, shattering a January ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.
More than 50,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel's military onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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