THE International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has called on state forces and combatants to respect its neutrality and avoid obstructing its work of delivering humanitarian help to the most destitute in war zones and other high-risk areas.

The federation said that 24 of its aid workers had been killed so far this year, mostly in the Gaza Strip.

IFRC president Kate Forbes, who is visiting the Philippines, said in a statement posted on X on Thursday that Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna had become the latest aid workers to be killed when their ambulance was hit on Wednesday in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.