Israel Releases 2 Ambulance Crew Members Detained In Gaza

Israel released two ambulance crew members who had been detained in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Monday.

In a statement, the society said: "The (Israeli) occupation forces have released two of the ambulance crew members after 50 days of detention."

"They were arrested at a military checkpoint in Khan Younis while evacuating patients from Al-Amal Hospital," the statement added.

It pointed out that "the occupation continues to detain six of the society's crew members, and their fate remains unknown."

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.

More than 33,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and nearly 76,400 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul -