GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Palestinian Civil Defense confirmed on Friday that five of its members remain missing after Israeli forces targeted its team in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of western Rafah six days ago.

The team had been dispatched on Sunday to rescue paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society who also lost contact after being surrounded by Israeli forces.

"Our teams have been waiting since this morning for Israeli approval to enter the Barracks area north of Tel Sultan to resume searching for our missing colleagues," the Civil Defense stated.

On Thursday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, with coordination from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), managed to enter Tel Sultan and recover the remains of a Civil Defense medic among the nine missing personnel.

According to Civil Defense reports, the team that reached Tel Sultan on Thursday was left in “shock after discovering the dismembered remains of their mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid Al-Attar.”

The report added that they also found the Civil Defense ambulances and fire trucks, along with Palestinian Red Crescent Society vehicles, “completely destroyed by Israeli strikes,” noting that “safety gear worn by the team was discovered torn apart, suggesting that Israeli forces directly targeted them before using bulldozers and heavy machinery to conceal bodies.”

Five Civil Defense personnel remain missing in Tel Sultan, it said.

On Sunday, the Israeli army launched a large-scale ground and air assault on the neighborhood, killing and injuring civilians and trapping thousands, including medical and rescue teams.

At the time, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported losing contact with its personnel after Israeli forces encircled them while they attempted to evacuate victims of air and artillery strikes in Rafah.

The Gaza Government Media Office previously stated that Israeli forces abducted 15 emergency responders and Civil Defense personnel while they were carrying out their duties in Rafah, calling for immediate international pressure on Israel to release them.

The Israeli army launched a surprise aerial campaign on the Gaza Strip on March 18, killing 855 people, injuring nearly 1,900 others, and shattering the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 50,200 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 113,900 injured in a brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.