GENEVA (Reuters) – The Red Cross temporarily halted patient escorts to the Gaza border after its convoy came under fire earlier this week, the head of its Gaza office said on Thursday, describing the incident as “deeply alarming” and calling for safety guarantees.
“The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) was targeted the day before yesterday, and that is unacceptable,” William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza told Reuters by videolink. “We took a pause yesterday,” he added, saying the organisation resumed patient transfers to the Egypt border crossing on Thursday.
Asked in the same interview if the ICRC had any staff fatalities in the Israel-Hamas conflict, he said a colleague had been missing for weeks, without elaborating.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Chris Reese)
