GAZA CITY: The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel released from detention on Tuesday a medic held since a deadly attack on ambulances in southern Gaza on March 23.
“The occupation forces have just released medic Asaad Al-Nsasrah, who was detained on March 23, 2025, while performing his humanitarian duty during the massacre of medical teams in the Tal Al-Sultan area of Rafah Governorate,” the PRCS said in a statement.
Eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Gaza civil defense agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were killed in the attack by Israeli forces, according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA.
The killings sparked international condemnation, including concern about possible “war crimes” from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
The PRCS said weeks after the incident that Nsasrah was in Israeli custody after being “forcibly abducted” when Israeli soldiers had opened fire on the ambulances.
An Israeli military investigation released this month “found no evidence to support claims of execution” or “indiscriminate fire” by its troops, but admitted to operational failures and said it was firing a field commander.
It said six of those killed were militants, revising an earlier claim that nine were fighters.
The PRCS and Gaza’s civil defense agency rejected those findings, with the PRCS denouncing the report as “full of lies.”
The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on March 23, days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.
Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the shooting scene. OCHA described it as a mass grave.
Days later, the army said its soldiers fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles,” with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.
But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military’s account.
The footage shows ambulances traveling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing.
In its probe, the military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles “to prevent further harm.”
Israel frees Gaza medic detained since ambulance attack: Red Crescent
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Israel frees Gaza medic detained since ambulance attack: Red Crescent
- Killings sparked international condemnation, including concern about possible “war crimes” from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk
Sudan’s prime minister takes his peace plan to the UN, but US urges humanitarian truce now
- Sudan’s prime minister is proposing a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force
- It seems unlikely the RSF would support the proposal, which would essentially give government forces a victory and take away their military power
UNITED NATIONS: Sudan’s prime minister on Monday proposed a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force, but the United States urged both sides to accept the Trump administration’s call for an immediate humanitarian truce.
Kamil Idris, who heads Sudan’s transitional civilian government, told the Security Council his plan calls for a ceasefire monitored by the United Nations, African Union and Arab League, and the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from all areas they occupy, their placement in supervised camps and their disarmament.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting, with widespread mass killings and rapes, and ethnically motivated violence. This has amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international rights groups.
It seemed highly unlikely the RSF would support the prime minister’s proposal, which would essentially give government forces a victory and take away their military power.
In an indirect reference to the truce supported by the US and key mediators Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, known as the Quad, Idris stressed to the UN Security Council that the government’s proposal is “homemade — not imposed on us.”
In early November, the Rapid Support Forces agreed to a humanitarian truce. At that time, a Sudanese military official told The Associated Press the army welcomed the Quad’s proposal but would only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and gives up their weapons — key provisions in the plan Idris put forward on Monday.
Idris said unless the paramilitary forces were confined to camps, a truce had “no chance for success.” He challenged the 15 members of the Security Council to back his proposal.
“This initiative can mark the moment when Sudan steps back from the edge and the international community — You! You! — stood on the right side of history,” the Sudanese prime minister said. He said the council should “be remembered not as a witness to collapse, but as a partner in recovery.”
US deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, who spoke to the council before Idris, said the Trump administration has offered a humanitarian truce as a way forward and “We urge both belligerents to accept this plan without preconditions immediately.”
Bartos said the Trump administration strongly condemns the horrific violence across Darfur and the Kordofan region — and the atrocities committed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, who must be held accountable.
UAE Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab, a member of the Quad, said there is an immediate opportunity to implement the humanitarian truce and get aid to Sudanese civilians in desperate need.
“Lessons of history and present realities make it clear that unilateral efforts by either of the warring parties are not sustainable and will only prolong the war,” he warned.
Abushahab said a humanitarian truce must be followed by a permanent ceasefire “and a pathway toward civilian rule independent of the warring parties.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari reflected escalating council concerns about the Sudan war, which has been fueled by the continuing supply of increasingly sophisticated weapons.
He criticized unnamed countries that refuse to stop supplying weapons, and both government and paramilitary forces for remaining unwilling to compromise or de-escalate.
“While they were able to stop fighting to preserve oil revenues, they have so far failed to do the same to protect their population,” Khiari said. “The backers of both sides must use their influence to help stop the slaughter, not to cause further devastation.”
The devastating war in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people displaced, disease outbreaks and famine spreading in parts of the country.
