- author, Robert Plummer
- role, BBC News
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The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that its office in the Gaza Strip was damaged by artillery fire, killing 22 people who had taken refuge near the office.
“Large calibre shells landed within metres of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ offices and a residence on Friday afternoon,” an ICRC statement said.
He added that all parties have an obligation to take precautions to avoid damage to civilians and humanitarian facilities.
An IDF spokesman told the BBC that initial investigations suggested there was “no indication” that the forces had carried out an attack in the area, but added that the incident was “under investigation”.
“The attack damaged the ICRC office building, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced people living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues,” the ICRC said in a statement.
“The incident caused heavy casualties at the nearby Red Cross field hospital, where 22 people were killed and 45 were injured, with further casualties reported.”
The ICRC said the “serious security incident” was one of several to have taken place in recent days.
“We condemn these incidents, which put the lives of humanitarian workers and civilians at risk,” the statement added.
The Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry gave a different figure, saying 25 people were killed and 50 wounded in the shelling, and blamed Israel.
The Israeli military launched an operation to eliminate Palestinian militant groups following an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7 that left about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead and 251 taken hostage.
More than 37,390 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but reported that 14,680 children, women and elderly people were among the dead by the end of April.
In a separate move, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that worsening hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah risked triggering catastrophe in the region and beyond.
Guterres condemned increasingly combative rhetoric from both sides and called for immediate de-escalation, saying the world cannot allow Lebanon to become “another Gaza.”
There have been a series of tit-for-tat cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah in recent months, with the Iranian-backed group saying it is fighting Israel to support its Gaza ally Hamas.
