The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Younis headquarters in Gaza.
In a post on social media platform X, the aid organisation said the fatality occured after “Israeli forces targeted the society’s headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building’s first floor”.
A video, which the organisation said “captures the initial moments” of the attack, shows fires burning in a building, with the floors covered in rubble.
It comes two days after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited a US-and-Israeli backed aid station in the enclave to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory.
Nearly two years after the war began, UN agencies have warned that time is running out and that Gaza was “on the brink of a full-scale famine”.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were killed in an attack by Israeli forces in southern Gaza in March.
Steve Witkoff told the families of Israeli hostages he working on a plan to end the war in Gaza
Mr Witkoff met the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza as fears for the captives’ survival mounted.
He told the families in Tel Aviv that he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with relatives of two hostages held in the enclave, who were seen in videos released by Hamas, to express his “profound shock” over the images, his office said.
Since Thursday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three clips showing two hostages taken during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, looking emaciated after nearly 22 months of captivity, have sparked strong reactions among Israelis, fueling renewed calls to reach a truce and hostage release deal without delay.
“The prime minister expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” a statement from Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
It added the Israeli prime minister told “the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing and will continue constantly and relentlessly”.
Families of hostages watch a video showing Evyatar David during a rally in Tel Aviv
In the footage shared by the Palestinian Islamist groups, Mr Braslavski, a 21-year-old German-Israeli dual national, and Mr David, 24, both appear weak and malnourished.
Mr Braslavski and Mr David are among 49 hostages abducted during Hamas’s 2023 attack who are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Most of the 251 hostages taken in the attack have been released during two short-lived truces in the war, some in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.