According to the Red Cross, 22 people were killed in an attack near its office in Gaza

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its offices in Gaza had been damaged by artillery fire, killing 22 people who had sought shelter near the office premises.

“Heavy-caliber projectiles landed just a few meters from the offices and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon,” the ICRC said in a statement.

It further stated that all parties were obliged to take precautions to prevent harm to the civilian population and humanitarian facilities.

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an initial investigation had shown that there was “no direct attack by the IDF on a Red Cross facility.”

It said the incident was being “investigated expeditiously” and the results would be presented.

Also on Saturday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU condemned the attack and called for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable.

“The attack damaged the structure of the ICRC office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced civilians living in tents, including many of our Palestinian colleagues,” the ICRC said.

“This incident resulted in a mass casualty influx at the nearby Red Cross field hospital. The hospital admitted 22 dead and 45 injured, and there were reports of additional casualties.”

The ICRC said the “serious security incident” was one of several in recent days.

“We condemn these incidents which endanger the lives of humanitarian workers and civilians,” the statement continued.

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip gave different figures. It said 25 people were killed and 50 injured in the attack and blamed Israel.

On Saturday, William Schomburg, head of the ICRC office in Rafah, described the scene of Friday’s attack.

“There were many injured, the scenes were horrific, honestly I have never seen anything like it before,” he told the BBC from Rafah.

“We had an influx of children, women and young men, all seriously injured by the explosions.

“We were able to transport them to the nearby Red Cross field hospital, where our dedicated teams are working to save lives and meet the needs of civilians during these conflicts who have consistently lacked access to medical care.”

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy the armed Palestinian group in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and took 251 others hostage.

Since then, more than 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but at the end of April, 14,680 children, women and elderly people were among the dead.

In another development, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that escalating hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah risked catastrophe for the region and beyond.

Guterres accused both sides of increasingly belligerent rhetoric and called for immediate de-escalation. The world could not afford for Lebanon to become a “second Gaza”.

In recent months, there have been a series of cross-border retaliatory strikes between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that says it is fighting Israel to support its ally Hamas in Gaza.