- author, Robert Plummer
- Role, BBC News
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The International Committee of the Red Cross says its offices in Gaza were damaged by the bombing, which killed 22 people who were seeking shelter around its compound.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement: “High-caliber projectiles landed meters away from the office and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon.”
He added that all parties are obligated to take the necessary precautions to avoid harming civilians and humanitarian facilities.
An Israeli army spokesman told the BBC that preliminary investigations indicated that there was “no indication” that it had carried out a raid in the area, but added that the incident was “under review”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said: “The strike damaged the International Committee of the Red Cross office building, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues.”
“This incident caused a large influx of casualties to the nearby Red Cross field hospital, where the hospital received 22 dead and 45 wounded, with reports of additional casualties.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the “serious security incident” was one of several that occurred in recent days.
The statement added, “We condemn these incidents that endanger the lives of humanitarian workers and civilians.”
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza gave different figures, saying 25 people were killed and 50 wounded in the bombing, which it blamed on Israel.
The Israeli army launched a campaign to destroy the Palestinian armed group in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which some 1,200 people – most of them civilians – were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it reportedly identified 14,680 children, women and the elderly among the dead by the end of April.
In another development, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the escalating hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese Islamic movement Hezbollah could lead to disaster in the region and beyond.
Guterres accused both sides of using increasingly warlike rhetoric and called for an immediate halt to the escalation, saying that the world could not bear for Lebanon to become “another Gaza.”
The past months have witnessed a series of cross-border retaliatory strikes between Israel and Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group says it is fighting Israel to support its ally, Hamas, in Gaza.
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