"In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

This is a press statement from the General Directorate of the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip.

*Given that

• The Israeli occupation prohibits civil defense crews from working in North Gaza for over 25 consecutive days and from performing their humanitarian work.
• Civil defense crews in Gaza City were directly targeted in the early dawn hours today by Israeli aircraft while they were attempting to retrieve the bodies of martyrs and rescue the injured from a strike in Gaza City on Al-Thalathini Street, in a house that was bombed by Israeli occupation forces. The latter directly targeted our crews during their work despite wearing these orange vests and clearly demarcating their vehicles, leading to the martyrdom of our colleague, the hero Ali Omar, a member of our rescue teams who had never stopped his work since the start of this war until now. In addition, three others of our crews were injured.*

We condemn the targeting by Israel of humanitarian workers whose protection is enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention and International Humanitarian Law.

This is the 18th such crime where Israeli occupation forces targeted civil defense crews during their rescue and firefighting work in the Gaza Strip.

This targeting came as civil defense crews carried out their duty of alleviating the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip by saving lives.

The martyrdom of colleague Ali Omar raises the number of martyrs among the civil defense in the Gaza Strip to 87 since October 7th, 2023, and more than 290 injured. We ask Allah to have mercy on our martyr.

Our demands are clear: we ask international organizations and institutions and the free people of the world to uphold their responsibility in ensuring the protection of crews providing services to citizens in the Gaza Strip, failing which, we will be facing a real catastrophe where thousands of civilians will be killed without anyone being able to rescue them, as is the case right now in North Gaza, which is subjected to a ground incursion by Israeli forces.

General Directorate of the Civil Defense. Wednesday, 20 November 2024."

Documenting a systematic pattern of targeting Civil Defense personnel both while working, and in their homes with their families.

• As of September 8th, 2024, 83 members of Gaza's Civil Defense have been killed, with the most recent being Colonel Mohamed Morsi, Deputy Director of Civil Defense in northern Gaza, who was martyred with a number of his family members after their home in Jabalia camp was bombed.

Chronology

• On October 23, after 21 days of siege, shelling, massacres, and constant threat on all the health system and the population, the civil defense in northern Gaza has confirmed in a press conferencethat the entire North Governorate is no longer able to provide humanitarian services. All hospitals, including Indonesian, Al-Awda, and Kamal Adwan, are completely besieged. Many civilians remain trapped in their homes in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun. Civil defense vehicles have been directly targeted, with the only vehicle in the North destroyed by Israeli artillery. The civil defense holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the lives of civilians and the kidnapping of their teams, condemning these actions as violations of humanitarian, ethical, and legal principles.

• On October 19, a statementof the Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs already lists a large number of attacks on the health system, aid and health workers (entitled "Gaza: UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide")

"The UN experts called for the protection of all humanitarian workers, after the World Health Organization (WHO) documented more than 136 attacks on health care services in the occupied Palestinian territory, including 59 attacks on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of at least 16 health workers since the beginning of hostilities on 7 October. Israeli bombardment on Gaza has also killed 15 staff of the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) and four Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in an ambulance. An ambulance driver of Magen David Adom in Israel lost his life while driving to treat injured people"

Relevant articles:

"Israeli attacks kill at least 82 civil defense personnel, injure hundreds in Gaza since Oct. 7, agency says"

https://x.com/MiddleEastMnt/status/1825513095407563197

"An Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza has killed a senior aid official and four members of his family. His civil defense group fights fires and rescues people trapped in rubble. So why was he attacked?"

https://x.com/KenRoth/status/1832792115060867334

"What does it mean to be a Civil Defense worker in Gaza?"

https://x.com/palinfoen/status/1816903815230292270

"At least 82 Palestinian civil Defense personnel have been killed by the Israelis since October"

https://x.com/swilkinsonbc/status/1825157332688388170

WHO: Israel Barring Aid Groups and Medical Specialists from Gaza

The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of preventing medical specialists from entering Gaza to assist local clinics. Since August 2024, eight organizations and over 50 specialists have been affected by this blockade, limiting essential medical services and psychological support for healthcare workers. Notably, Israeli authorities denied entry to Glia and the Palestinian American Medical Association, marking the first time entire aid organizations have been barred from Gaza.