The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called the State Department’s response to the Israeli killing of Nine Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) medics and several civil defense workers “shameful.” CAIR also called on the United States and the international community to pressure Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza after all the bakeries in the strip closed citing shortages of flour and diesel.
Nine PRCS medics in ambulances, as well as some Civil Defence workers, went to help people in Rafah, Gaza, and disappeared on March 23 after coming under attack from Israeli forces. One ambulance was dispatched to al-Hashaashin in Rafah to provide aid to victims of Israeli attacks. Israeli soldiers fired on it, injuring the crew. The PRCS then sent a further three ambulances to help the injured people their colleagues were trying to reach, and to rescue their colleagues who had been attacked.
The bodies of 14 people were found in a shallow mass grave, according to the PRCS. Eight were identified as PRCS medics, five were Civil Defense workers, and one was a UN agency employee. They were killed “one after another”, then buried in the sand along with their emergency vehicles, the UN said. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a post on X that the first responders “were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers & justice.”
US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters the US expected “all parties” to comply with international humanitarian law, without clarifying which account of the killings, Israel’s or the UN’s, she was referring to.
SEE: How did Israel kill the Red Crescent medics in Gaza? | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera
All bakeries in the Gaza Strip closed today due shortages of flour and diesel, according to Abdel Nasser al-Ajrami, the head of the Bakery Owners Association. Gaza civil defense workers have told Al Jazeera reports that conditions in the strip are deteriorating to the kind of famine conditions experienced last March.
In a statement, CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“The Israeli government executed a group of paramedics after assaulting their clearly marked ambulances and dumped their bodies in a mass grave. This is an atrocity so clear and obvious that no one can deny it other than dishonestly, which is exactly what the State Department opted to do. It is utterly shameful that our government will go even as far as excusing an act that, if committed by any other nation in the world, would warrant serious condemnations and punitive action. The Israeli government, which is now resuming its campaign of starvation on the civilian population of Gaza, must be reeled in. The United States and the international community must take immediate action to stop these atrocities from going on.”
He noted that CAIR called for a UN investigation of the Israeli execution of Palestinian ambulance crew members after it happened.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com