The Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip announced on Tuesday that the Israeli army had kidnapped 15 paramedics and civil defense personnel while they were performing their duties in Rafah, calling for urgent international pressure on Tel Aviv to secure their immediate release.

The media office said in a statement, "The occupation army continues to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, in flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law. Two days ago, it kidnapped 15 members of the ambulance and civil defense crews in Rafah while they were performing their humanitarian duty of rescuing the injured and providing relief to the afflicted."

The Government Media Office held both Israel and the US administration fully responsible for the fate and safety of the kidnapped individuals, adding, "We consider this escalation a war crime that requires immediate accountability."

He stated that this crime constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, "as the Israeli occupation deliberately concealed humanitarian personnel protected under the Geneva Conventions."

He added that this "clearly reveals the criminal policy pursued by the occupation in targeting medical and humanitarian personnel, in direct violation of international agreements that guarantee their protection and criminalize harming them under any circumstances."

The Government Information Office called on the international community, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all human rights and humanitarian organizations and bodies to "urgently intervene and pressure Israel to immediately release the abductees."

He condemned "the occupation's repetition of these crimes and its continued targeting of medical and humanitarian personnel, as has been done to thousands of our Palestinian people since the beginning of the war of genocide."

He stressed that the recurrence of these crimes "underscores the need for urgent and effective international action to put an end to these violations and impose deterrent measures to halt the occupation's ongoing crimes."

On Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that Israeli forces surrounded its ambulances as they attempted to rescue victims of a bombing in Rafah, wounding paramedics before the organization lost contact with its crews under Israeli air and artillery fire.