Uniforms Soaked in Blood
Through the debris and chaos, youth strive to make a difference in the world. They work selflessly amidst disasters so commoners don’t have to lose their families and homes. They look for nothing in return except the smiles on the faces of children who found their way back home safely and parents who could finally lead their families peacefully. These workers showed humanity to the world but met death in return.
Humanitarian workers of the Red Crescent Society, Palestine, were dispatched to Rafah on a mission to help and rescue people injured by Israeli attacks on March 23, 2025. Undeniably, at this point, Israeli soldiers who are meant to safeguard the public fired upon the crew. Were their eyes blind to the vehicle clearly marked as carrying medical and humanitarian personnel, or did they approach “suspiciously” without any identification?
All the chaos began with the quest to search for the missing emergency teams sent to retrieve casualties after Israeli forces launched an offensive into the Tel al-Sultan district of the southern city of Rafah. The first team was surrounded by Israeli troops and brutally killed. Later on, the successive teams that were sent to rescue the first one had to face the consequences. Things got complicated when the Israeli military said they had to open fire on vehicles that were approaching without any emergency signals.
No one had to accept their side of the story unless the United Nations demanded “justice and answers” for the Israeli killings of emergency responders. The humanitarian chief glossed over the incident by saying that they were killed while trying to save lives. Nothing could compensate for the huge loss. It started off as a geopolitical issue taking the lives of civilians and has now ended up taking the lives of people who help the injured. After a ceasefire that lasted for two months, Israel relaunched its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, 2025. Since then, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, among whom half were women and children.
After a series of ground assaults, 15 medics were allegedly killed by the Israeli military. Besides claiming the emergency vehicles entered suspiciously, the Israeli military force was not ready to allow others to access the site where the emergency teams disappeared. Hidden truths came to light when footages of Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Civil Defense personnel wearing masks and bright orange vests, digging through hills of dirt piled up by Israeli bulldozers, emerged. Humanitarian workers who came for the rescue were buried with no hands and some with no torso, along with severely damaged ambulances, in the dirt. Jonathan Whittall stated that this site was a “mass grave” of passionate humans and what happened was an “absolute horror.”
With heavy hearts and tearful eyes, a giant crowd gathered outside the mortuary of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis to bid farewell to the eight slain Palestine Red Crescent Society workers. Nothing can compensate for the tragic loss of humanitarian workers who were buried in their uniforms and gloves.
When will the cries of commoners end? Where will they ask for help when the humanity in people is dead?
