Palestinian Red Crescent Society on the recent deaths of members - Press Conference | United Nations

Hybrid press briefing sponsored by the Permanent Observer Mission of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to the United Nations on the recent deaths of members of Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).    Speakers: H.E. Dr. Younis Al-Khatib, President of PRCS Mr. Marwan Jilani, Vice President of PRCS.  Moderator: Mr. Dylan Winder, Permanent Observer of the IFRC. The President of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Dr. Younis Al-Khatib told reporters in New York that he had presented audiovisual evidence and had urged the Security Council “to support the call for an independent and thorough investigation” following the discovery of the bodies of eight missing medics from the PRCS in a mass grave in Gaza. According to the he International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) an emergency medical team of nine disappeared along with their ambulances after they came under heavy fire in Al-Hashashin on 23 March. After seven days, the bodies of ambulance officers Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer and Ezzedine Shaath and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al Sharif and Rifatt Radwan were retrieved. Ambulance officer Assad Al-Nassasra is still missing. Describing the evidence, Al-Khatib said, “I heard the voice of one of those team members who was killed. And his phone was found with this body. And he recorded the whole event. His last words, before being shot. Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives. And then he was killed.” Al-Khatib said, “we were praying that they will be alive. They kept us for eight days in the dark. Now, the only information we know that Assad is missing. But there's somebody who knows whether Assad has been killed somewhere else, or Assad is detained in Israeli jails.” The Vice President of the PRCS, Marwan Jilani, said, “I think the scale of this crime should force, that it should oblige the international community to do more and not to accept that this would be another incident that goes in the files and be forgotten after a few days.” Asked how the video evidence presented to the Council was obtained, he said, “this was the phone of one of our EMS members, of the paramedics who was killed. So, the phone was on his body. The phone was in his pocket. So, it was with him. That's why we retrieved that video. There is a longer video, As I said, we will look into it, first of all, this is evidence, and we will deal with it as such.”


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