Bodies of 4 Palestinians retrieved near Karam Abu Salem following arrest by Israeli forces

Four Palestinians thought to be workers supporting aid deliveries into the strip, were killed in a targeted attack after they were taken prisoner by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Three of their bodies were retrieved on Sunday morning.

Mahmoud Abu Taha, a truck driver and the father of one of those killed, told Mada Masr that his son, Kamel Ehab Ghabyan, used to work with him as an assistant at the Karam Abu Salem crossing. Footage from the area on Sunday showed Abu Taha and other family members mourning their loved ones, whose hands were bound together with cable ties.

“They arrested him. And when they released him, on his way home, they shot him. The drone shot him and the group he was with. They were a group heading home together,” said Abo Taha.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that they were part of a larger group of workers that had been arrested four days prior, while another eyewitness speaking to Mada Masr said that they were arrested on Thursday.

Kamel’s body was retrieved on Sunday morning from the area east of Rafah near the Karam Abu Salem crossing, along with the bodies of Mohamed Awad Ramadan Hegazy and his brother, Ramadan Awad Ramadan Hegazy. The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that a fourth body had been retrieved on Saturday. “According to available information, they were aid workers,” said the club, which advocates for and documents information about Palestinians imprisoned by Israeli forces.

Workers and security personnel in the Gaza Strip involved in supervising the deliveries of goods and aid during Israel’s aggression on the besieged coastal enclave have been targeted on multiple occasions.

Following the ongoing invasion of Rafah, which began in May with Israeli forces taking over the Palestinian side of  the Rafah border crossing, aid deliveries via the crossing have ceased, with Egypt reportedly refusing to cooperate with occupying Israeli forces in operating the crossing.

Deliveries have been redirected instead to the Karam Abu Salem border crossing, which connects Egypt, the Gaza Strip and Israeli-held territory.