The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that it has cancelled the search for eight of its crew members who went missing following an Israeli attack in Rafah.

“The search mission for our crew members has been cancelled, and the rescue team returned without finding any bodies,” PRCS told Al Jazeera.

Nine PRCS and Gaza’s Civil Defence crew members went missing on Sunday while on a rescue mission during a days-long Israeli siege on northern Rafah’s Tel al-Sultan.

PRCS said it lost contact with the team after Israeli forces open-fired on them as they were on their way to treat the wounded on Sunday. It reported that one of the crew members was released after being severely beaten.

Earlier on Friday, PRCS and the Civil Defence confirmed they had recovered the body of Anwar Abdul Hamid Al-Attar, a humanitarian mission officer.

The Civil Defence reported that its staff are “experiencing great shock” following the recovery of Al-Attar’s body, which they said was “torn apart”.