ANKARA

Three Palestinian paramedics were killed by an Israeli tank shell while attempting to evacuate injured civilians in Gaza City, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement said an Israeli tank directly fired on the paramedics as they were evacuating civilians injured in an Israeli strike on a house in Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City on Monday night.

A second ambulance team trying to recover the bodies of the paramedics also came under fire from Israeli drones and military vehicles, the statement said.

The ministry called for an international investigation into Israeli attacks on paramedics and for protection for first responders.

The Palestinian group Hamas, for its part, condemned the deadly attack as a "complex war crime that is added to the black record of the Israeli occupation."

According to the Gaza authorities, at least 1,580 medical staffers, including doctors and first responders, have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.