Funeral prayer held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for 8 health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack 8 days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble, on March 31, 2025 [Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency]
Funeral prayer held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, for 8 health workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent who were killed in an Israeli attack 8 days ago in Rafah and had been pulled from the rubble, on March 31, 2025 [Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency]
In yet another brazen, heinous war crime, the Israeli army has murdered eight medics, six civil defence responders and a UN employee. Their bodies 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 humanitarians.
The first responders were on their way to the Tal al-Sultan district 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 ambulances and fire trucks.
This latest murder of medics brings the total number of healthcare workers murdered by Israel to 1,060. Targeting 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, meaningful action against the rogue state 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 22 March after Israeli soldiers 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 decency; an unmistakable reflection of the Israeli government’s disregard for legal and moral norms.
The Gaza Genocide is part of Israel’s long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
It is often concealed behind euphemisms like “voluntary transfer”, “evacuation” or “protecting civilian lives”. However, for the first time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly acknowledged Israeli plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza, aligning with the so-called “riviera” plan of US President Donald Trump. Racist minister Itamar Ben Gvir rejoined Netanyahu’s ruling coalition to help execute “Trump’s vision” for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza. What was once whispered behind closed doors has now become an explicit strategy.
READ:UN human rights chief condemns killing of Gaza humanitarian workers by Israeli army
After the completion of the first phase of the recent ceasefire agreement, Israel unilaterally disregarded its obligations, ultimately refusing to proceed with the second phase in early February. It reinstated the full blockade, stopped all food and medical aid from entering Gaza, and cut power to the strip’s only drinking water plant. The Israeli government’s insistence on maintaining military control over the Philadelphi Corridor made it clear that it never intended to honour the agreement it had signed.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch ideological racist, chose not to resign, such was his confidence in Netanyahu’s private assurances that Israel would not proceed with phase II of the signed agreement without approval from the security cabinet. This effectively granted Smotrich veto power over any withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, eventually ensuring the collapse of the ceasefire.
Against this backdrop of Israeli deceit and warmongering, the US mediator Steven Witkoff continued to play a pivotal role in whitewashing Israeli violations and manipulating public perceptions. Rather than holding Israel accountable, Witkoff engaged in outright deception, claiming falsely that the Palestinians “chose war” by rejecting an alleged 50-day extension of phase I of the ceasefire deal. This claim was not only misleading but a direct inversion of reality and an effort to shift blame onto Palestinians while giving Netanyahu diplomatic cover to violate an agreement that he, Witkoff, had helped mediate.
Clearly, Witkoff, the Israel-first mediator, is no honest broker.
The resumption of Israel’s genocide reveals either the mediators’ impotence or their outright complicity in Israel’s flagrant violations; it reflected very badly on the US, Egypt and Qatar. Meanwhile, Washington’s refusal to enforce accountability only further underscores its role in enabling Israeli intransigence.
These facts raise more serious questions about the integrity of the US mediation effort. Why does Washington feel the need to introduce new conditions or negotiate a new agreement when it had already mediated an agreement? The answer lies in America’s inability — or unwillingness — to exert pressure on Israel to comply with international laws and conventions, and the agreements that it signs, supposedly in good faith. Rather than criticising Israel for its violations, the US has chosen to blame the occupation state’s victims, and then rationalise and excuse the Israeli-imposed starvation of the Palestinian children in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has not only shielded Israel from international accountability, but has also implemented policies designed to suppress criticism of Israel within American academic institutions. By leveraging federal funding and political pressure, the administration has sought to intimidate universities into cracking down on pro-Palestinian activism and to silence dissent under the guise of combating anti-Semitism.
READ:US Zionist group slammed for ‘bringing fascism to America’
This deliberate misrepresentation of anti-Semitism is another tool in the armoury of those who want to shield Israel from being held to account for its war crimes and crimes against humanity. It not only distorts the term’s true meaning but also weaponises it to silence legitimate criticism of the Zionist state’s policies and actions. As a result, American institutions that once championed free thought and open debate are increasingly policing speech, disciplining students and faculty, and cancelling events that challenge Israeli policies.
This has had a chilling effect on academic freedom.
Universities fearful of a federal government backlash and donor influence are complicit in the stifling of legitimate discourse on Palestinian rights, effectively transforming themselves into instruments of repression and censorship. In Trump’s USA today, the disappearance of student activists taken from the streets of American cities into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres is the harsh reality for those who dare to speak truth to power.
Intimidating those who challenge power is what allows a country like Israel to continue murdering children, women and men with impunity. The latest Israeli murder of first responders was deliberate, and an attack on the very essence of humanity, a crime that undermines the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
First responders, medics, and rescue workers embody the most selfless aspects of human nature, risking their own lives to save others. This Israeli action, one of many, is not only a war crime, but also a moral indictment of a world that allows such brutality to persist. The world’s inaction to Israeli crimes emboldens war criminals, sending a dangerous message that those who carry out mass killings, starvation, forced displacement and the targeting of humanitarian workers will face no consequences.
Israel’s open contempt for international laws is a scar on humanity.
Yet, it is allowed to act with complete impunity, enabled by a US administration and other governments, including the UK, bought and paid for by pro-Israel lobby groups and individuals. If you cherish democratic values, you have to stand up to the rogue state of Israel, the actions of which threaten us all, not just the Palestinians.
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