Red Crescent: Medic who’s been missing since ambulances fired upon is held by Israel
Palestinian rescue service says it was told by International Red Cross that Assad Al-Nsasrah is in Israeli custody after being ‘forcibly abducted,’ demands his immediate release
A Palestinian Red Crescent staff member who went missing in late March when 15 people were killed by Israeli fire is being detained by Israeli authorities, the rescue service and the Red Cross said on Sunday.
Hisham Mhana, the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Gaza Strip, confirmed to Reuters that it had received information that the Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedic Assad Al-Nsasrah was being held in an Israeli place of detention.
“As per standard practice, we informed the families immediately. In this case, we also informed the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) as they have special standing as a partner of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” he said.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment.
Mhana said the ICRC has not been granted access to Nsasrah, who until Sunday had been declared missing, and also has not been able to visit any of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails since Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, who are being held on suspicion of being affiliated with Gaza-based terrorist organizations.
The Red Cross has also not visited any of the hostages held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza, including the 59 captives who remain in the coastal enclave.
In a post on X, the PRCS demanded the immediate release of Nsasrah, who it said was “forcibly abducted” while carrying out humanitarian duties.
????Urgent: We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad Al-Nsasrah is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities. His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in #Rafah.
????We call on the… pic.twitter.com/l0oOxujS8G— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) April 13, 2025
It added that Nsasrah and his colleagues came under heavy gunfire, which led to the killing of eight others in a “grave violation” of international humanitarian law.
The bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, the Hamas-linked Civil Emergency Service and the UN were found buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza in March. The IDF has said at least six of them were members of Hamas’s military wing.
The UN and the Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them after they were dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli airstrikes.
The PRCS has charged that Israeli soldiers gunned down the team with bullets to their upper body with “intent to kill.”
The Israeli military referred Reuters to its statement from Monday, in which it said that a thorough inquiry into the incident, commissioned by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, was still underway and that it would provide further details only once the investigation is complete.
It said that a preliminary inquiry indicated that “the troops opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists.” Hamas has rejected Israel’s accusation.
While the IDF has yet to provide evidence for how it determined the six were Hamas members, the Palestinian terror group is known for routinely using civilian infrastructure — including hospitals and ambulances — for its military purposes and for having its members disguise themselves as civilians. These practices violate the laws of war.
The IDF is expected to name the Hamas operatives once its probe is concluded.
The only known survivor of the incident, PRCS paramedic Munther Abed, said soldiers had opened fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
The killings occurred in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah on March 23, days into a renewed Israeli offensive in the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of attempting to cover up the incident by burying the bodies in a mass grave, and claims emerged that some of the bodies had their hands tied and were seemingly shot dead from close range, which the IDF has denied.
The IDF has said it had informed the UN of the location of the bodies, which were buried in a mass grave. It added that burying bodies in this way was an approved and regular practice during fighting in Gaza to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.
However, the Red Crescent said that the bodies had been buried “in a brutal and degrading manner that violates human dignity.”
After the incident came to light, the IDF initially claimed that the ambulances were traveling without any headlights or emergency lights and were uncoordinated.
A video found on the phone of one of the slain medics later surfaced, published by The New York Times, and appeared to show that the emergency vehicles were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on when the IDF opened fire.
The IDF has acknowledged that, based on the video, its initial statement asserting that the ambulances had had their lights off appeared to be incorrect, noting that it was based on the testimony of soldiers involved in the incident.
In total, eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Hamas-linked Palestinian Civil Defense, and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, were killed in the incident, according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.
According to the United Nations, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, during which some 1,200 people were killed, and 251 were taken hostage by terrorists, sparking the ongoing war in the Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.