ISTANBUL

A missing Palestinian medic is in Israeli detention after he went unaccounted for last month in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Sunday.

The organization said that it was notified by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Asaad Nsasrah was held by Israeli forces.

It appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to “immediately release” Nsasrah, who was “forcibly abducted while carrying out his humanitarian duties.”

Israel triggered international outcry last month after its army forces surrounded and killed eight Palestinian medics and one UN staffer during a rescue mission in Rafah last month.

The victims were shot, and some of them had their hands bound and buried in an area roughly 200 meters from where their vehicles had last been seen.

Initially, the Israeli army claimed that its forces had opened fire on vehicles that approached in a “suspicious manner” without emergency signals. It later admitted to killing the medics.

More than 50,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November 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.