A delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) inspects a makeshift displacement camp in Rafah’s Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip on May 29, 2024, a site that was reportedly hit a day earlier during Israeli bombardment, which the army denied. Street fighting and Israeli bombardment rocked Gaza’s far-southern Rafah on May 29, Palestinian residents and officials said, a day after Israeli tanks rolled into the center of the city near the Egyptian border. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / Agence France-Presse)
GENEVA, Switzerland — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its Gaza office was “damaged” by a shell attack Friday that killed at least 22 people who had taken shelter around the compound.
The ICRC did not say who fired the “heavy caliber projectiles” but in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), it noted that the assault “damaged the structure of the ICRC office,” which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced persons living in tents.
It said 22 bodies and 45 wounded had been taken to a nearby Red Cross field hospital after the shelling, and there were “reports of additional casualties.”
“Heavy-caliber projectiles landed within metres of the office and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon,” it said in a statement.
READ: PH reiterates calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza
“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, of whose locations the parties to the conflict are aware and which are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, puts the lives of civilians and Red Cross staff at risk.”
“This grave security incident is one of several in recent days,” it added.
“Previously stray bullets have reached ICRC structures. We decry these incidents that put the lives of humanitarians and civilians at risk.”