Gaza rescuers say recovered 14 bodies after Israel fire on ambulances

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories  —  The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that it had recovered bodies of 14 rescuers killed in Israeli military fire on ambulances in the Gaza Strip one week ago.

 

"The number of recovered bodies has risen to 14 so far, including eight EMTs (emergency medical technicians) from the Palestine Red Crescent teams, five civil defence personnel and an employee from the United Nations agency," the group said in a statement, referring to those killed when Israeli forces had fired at ambulances on March 23.

 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel's intensified military pressure on Hamas in Gaza has been effective, stressing the Palestinian group must lay down its arms.

 

"We are negotiating under fire... We can see cracks beginning to appear" in what the group demanded in its negotiations, Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting.

 

Netanyahu's remarks came as mediators -- Egypt, Qatar, and the United States -- continued efforts to broker a ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

 

A senior Hamas official stated on Saturday that the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators and urged Israel to support it.

 

Netanyahu's office confirmed receipt of the proposal and said Israel had submitted a counterproposal.

 

However, the details of the latest mediation efforts remain undisclosed.

 

On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected claims Israel was not interested in discussing a deal that would secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza, but insisted Hamas must surrender its weapons.

 

"We are willing. Hamas must lay down its arms... Its leaders will be allowed to leave" from Gaza, he said.

 

He said that Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and "enable the implementation of the Trump plan -- the voluntary migration plan".

 

Days after taking office, US President Donald Trump had announced a plan that would relocate Gaza's more than two million inhabitants to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

 

His announcement was slammed by much of the international community.

 

A fragile truce that had provided weeks of relative calm in the Gaza Strip collapsed on March 18 when Israel resumed its aerial bombardment and ground offensive in the Palestinian territory. 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire" in a phone call between the two leaders. 

 

Macron's intervention comes at a time when Israel has resumed its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory following the collapse of a fragile truce with the Islamist group Hamas. 

 

"I called on the Israeli prime minister to put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire, which Hamas must accept. I underlined that humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately," the French leader wrote on the X social network.