Israeli army killing of Gaza aid workers 'deeply disturbing': UN rights chief

The UN rights chief on Tuesday harshly condemned an Israel army attack last week on an emergency convoy that killed 15 aid workers and medical personnel and demanded an investigation.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of eight of its medics, six members of Gaza's civil defense agency, and one UN employee. One Red Crescent medic remains missing.

"I condemn the attack by the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

"The subsequent discovery of their bodies eight days later in Rafah, buried near their marked destroyed vehicles, is deeply disturbing," he added.

"This raises significant questions about the conduct of the Israeli army during and in the aftermath of the incident."

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA told AFP that "available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues".

The incident occurred in Rafah city's Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, close to the Egyptian border, just days after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza following an almost two-month-long truce.

"They were buried under the sand, alongside their wrecked emergency vehicles – marked ambulances, a fire truck and a UN car."

Turk stressed in his statement that "medical personnel and humanitarian and emergency workers must be protected by all parties to the conflict, as required by international humanitarian law".

"Such disappearances and killings raise serious concerns as tens of thousands of Palestinians need help while they are reportedly trapped in Tall Al-Sultan, Rafah, with the entire governorate under a displacement order," he said.

The UN rights chief insisted that "Israel, as the occupying power, has the responsibility of protecting civilians and facilitating their access to basic lifesaving services, including healthcare".

"My Office has on several occasions raised concerns about the detention and killing of medical and emergency personnel in Gaza, who are working under extremely difficult conditions," he said, pointing out that "hundreds of them have been killed over the past 18 months".

Turk called for clarification of "the fate and whereabouts of the last member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society who remains missing".

"There must be an independent, prompt and thorough investigation into the incident and those responsible for any violation of international law must be held to account," he said.