Secretary general says he is ‘heartbroken’ by the news, after Israeli military says it fired on ‘suspicious vehicles’ that were later found to include ambulances

The Red Cross federation voiced outrage on Sunday after eight medical colleagues were killed while on duty in the Gaza Strip.

The world’s largest humanitarian network said in a statement: “The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [IFRC] is outraged at the deaths of eight medics from PRCS [Palestine Red Crescent Society], killed on duty in Gaza.”

The IFRC said the bodies were retrieved after “seven days of silence” and of having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen. It said it was the single most deadly attack on its colleagues anywhere in the world since 2017.

Israel’s military admitted on Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”, with Hamas condemning it as a war crime.