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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Jagan Chapagain

Our aid workers were brutally killed and thrown into a mass grave in Gaza. This must never happen again

A large crowd of mourners.
A funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza, for eight humanitarian workers from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, 31 March 2025. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

Which was most horrific? The agonising week-long wait – silence after our colleagues went missing, as we suspected the worst but hoped for something different? Or the confirmation, seven days later, that bodies had been found? Or, since, the ghastly details of how they were found, and killed?

Their ambulances were crushed and partly buried. Nearby were their bodies – also buried, en masse, in the sand. Our dead colleagues were still wearing their Red Crescent vests. In life, those uniforms signalled their status as humanitarian workers; they should have protected them. Instead, in death, those red vests became their shrouds.

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