27 Gaza Civil Defence Members Detained By Israeli Army, Agency Says

GAZA CITY (Palestine), Jan 20 (Bernama-AA) -- Twenty-seven members of Gaza’s Civil Defence Service are still held by the Israeli army, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported, citing a statement from the agency on Monday.

“At least 97 civil defence personnel were killed, 319 others injured, including dozens with permanent disabilities, in Israeli attacks,” it added in a statement.

The service said Ahmad al-Kahlout, the head of the civil defence agency in northern Gaza, is among those held by the Israeli army.

A ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement took effect in Gaza on Sunday, suspending Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave.

The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The civil defence service said its teams retrieved the bodies of 38,000 people from under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza since the start of the Israeli war on Oct 7, 2023.

Describing northern Gaza as a “pile of rubble,” the agency appealed to Arab and foreign civil defence teams to help in rescue efforts in the bombed-out region.

Nearly 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 110,700 others injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli war has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.

In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

-- BERNAMA-AA