For eight agonising days, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) repeated the same haunting words: “Their fate remains unknown”.
For eight days, I searched feverishly, refreshing news pages for updates, desperately seeking answers. We cannot simply bear witness. We must honour Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer, Ezzedine Shaath, Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al-Sharif, and Rifaat Radwan, who paid the ultimate price, for the good of humanity.
Rules exist everywhere, even in war. The international rules-based order was founded on the promise that even in war, humanity would prevail. The wounded would be treated and people who save lives would be protected, not deliberately targeted.
But in Gaza, that promise lies in ruins. The medic massacre of eight PRCS workers is not merely a war crime; it is an assault on the very essence of international humanitarian law and justice. It is an attack on humanity itself, marking one of our darkest hours.
First responders take tremendous risks to reach the injured and the vulnerable. Yet, the PRCS has been obstructed by Israeli forces long before October 2023. Israeli tanks block their passage, and checkpoints force them to undergo searches to delay and deny them entry—obstacles no other ambulance service in the world faces.
On March 23, 2025, when the news first broke that PRCS teams had been besieged in Rafah, time froze. My heartbeat increased, my anxiety escalated, and yet, after bearing witness to atrocity after atrocity, nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming grief and mourning that would envelop me.
As Palestinians, we have been trapped in a constant state of grief and mourning. Israel had just unilaterally shattered the ceasefire and increased the scale of its genocide against Palestinians. Emboldened, my worst fears grew, and eight days later, reality shattered me.
It was far worse than I could have possibly imagined. Eight heroic PRCS volunteers were brutally massacred in a direct attack on medical workers, the Geneva Conventions, and International Humanitarian Law. They were found shot at point-blank range, buried under sand in a mass grave, some with their hands tied. Four ambulances were destroyed. Alongside them lay six Gaza Civil Defence members and one UN worker.
This is the largest massacre of humanitarian workers in modern warfare.
Since October 2023, 30 members of the PRCS have been killed. Each time they respond to an emergency, they know they are a target. They leave their homes with smiles, and some never return – killed in their own ambulances.
Yet, they endure – for the good of humanity.
The footage Refaat Radwan recorded of the massacre before his own death shook me to my core. The medics, knowing their fate, recited the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. One asks, “Forgive me, Mother. Mother, forgive me. This is the path I chose. To help people. Forgive me, Mother. By God, I only chose this path to help people. Forgive me.”
This is what broke me. The raw, gut-wrenching truth. There are no words.
Hassan Hosni Al-Hilla was too sick to take his shift that night, so his 21-year-old son, Mohammad, covered it. Little did he know, it would be his last.
I ask: What could be more selfless than the men and women of PRCS—often entire families volunteering together—enduring the same brutal conditions as the rest of Gaza, yet risking their lives against a genocidal military, all to provide urgent, life-saving care?
The Red Cross and Red Crescent are universal symbols of hope, protection, and humanity. They are internationally recognised emblems of neutrality and protection during peace and conflict. They are meant to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers. Yet, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the PRCS has continually been targeted.
Though neutrality remains a contested concept, it is crucial to ensuring humanitarian workers can deliver aid and maintain access in crises like this.
Last November, as a member of the Sydney Peace Prize Jury and Council, I proudly awarded the Sydney Peace Prize to the 16 million-strong network of volunteers and staff of the International Federation and Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. When awarding the 2024 Prize, the Jury particularly acknowledged the PRCS, which, operating in the most dangerous conditions, has been attacked, tortured, or forcibly disappeared, with ambulances and facilities damaged or destroyed. The jury was determined to honour their courage, determination, and resilience.
The PRCS has been working day and night to provide life-saving aid to two million women, men and children in Gaza, enduring relentless bombardment, displacement and starvation by Israel in what Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese have determined to be genocide.
Emergency Medical technician Hanadi says she has witnessed colleagues leave smiling only to return killed in their own ambulances. She knows they are a target whenever they are on a mission. They visit a site that has been struck, knowing they may well be struck too.
The Red Crescent symbol emblazoned on their ambulances and on their uniforms should guarantee their protection. They should never be a target.
The Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law distinguish between civilians and enemy combatants, defining the rules of war. Yet in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, international law has been defied over and over – horror after horror, war crime after war crime.
Civilians, humanitarians, medical workers and journalists are specifically protected, but no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza. Homes, schools, shelters, hospitals, and places of worship have all come under attack or been destroyed.
While we once debated who struck Al-Ahli Hospital in October 2023, today, the entire medical system in Gaza has collapsed.
Furthermore, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, remains imprisoned.
We must demand justice. We must ensure that the perpetrators of the Gaza medic massacre, one of the most shameful periods in modern history, are held accountable. They must be brought to trial and face justice.
We must defend the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems. We must protect the brave, selfless teams that embody the best of us. We must uphold International Humanitarian Law and the promise of the Geneva Conventions because, for the good of humanity, we cannot afford to fail.
Mohamed Duar is a member of Sydney Peace Prize Jury and Council. He is also Amnesty International Australia's Occupied Palestinian Territory Spokesperson. He holds a Master of Human Rights from the University of Sydney.
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