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Palestinian Medical Staff, Angels Of Mercy Turned Into Victims
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| Israeli
soldiers launched a criminal onslaught on Palestinian
paramedics and Red Crescent workers |
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, March 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Last
Friday witnessed the highest death toll in a single day since the
eruption of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation.
However, what is more disturbing, international as well as Arab
television stations aired shocking scenes of Palestinian ambulances
taken over by Israeli soldiers and used for shooting, and wounded
Palestinians resorting to ambulances for help.
“As
if angered to see those people, in white, helping wounded women and
children, the Israeli soldiers launched a criminal onslaught on
Palestinian paramedics and Red Crescent workers,” Dr. Ahmed Saeed
told IslamOnline.
Dr.
Saeed, working for Jenin’s Palestinian hospital, added;
“Israel’s most terrible crime, as far as I see it, was the
murder of Dr. Sulaiman Khalil Monday, March 4. He was killed while
doing his job. They (Israeli soldiers) shot him while he was
treating a wounded little girl,” Dr. Saeed continued, tears
covering his face.
He
went on describing how “indifferently the Israeli soldiers, after
shooting Dr. Sulaiman, head of the Palestinian emergency medical
service in Jenin, prevented other medical staff and ambulances from
saving him.”
“They
just stood there till he stopped breathing,” he added.
The
murder in El-Yamama Hospital in Bethlehem, Friday March 8, was no
less brutal. Dr. Ahmed No’man Subieh was killed by Israeli tank
shells, while in his office, doing his job.
Meanwhile,
medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) -(Doctors Without
Borders)- accused the Israeli army Sunday of violating international
law by attacking medical staffers and services in the Palestinian
occupied territories.
In
the past seven days, Israeli troops killed 15 medical personnel and
injured many others during intensive operations in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, MSF said in a statement.
Condemning
the attacks, MSF added: "International humanitarian law
expressly protects medical services and the injured in times of
conflict. The Israeli army's unprecedented attacks on medical
services in the Palestinian territories are very alarming and are
evidence of a violation of international laws."
Medecins
sans Frontieres, which runs two medical and psychological care
programs in the occupied territories, called on the Israeli
authorities "to take immediate measures" to protect
medics.
French
humanitarian group Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) also
condemned fire by Israeli troops at Palestinian ambulances. It said
four medical staff were killed overnight Thursday.
These
included a medic for UNRWA, the UN relief and works agency for
Palestinian refugees, and an ambulance man for the Palestinian Red
Crescent in the northern West Bank, as well as a medical worker and
an ambulance driver in Gaza.
All
were killed while carrying out their jobs, Medecins du Monde said
Friday.
Another
victim of Israeli operations was the head of emergency services in
Jenin in the West Bank, according to Medecins sans Frontieres.
Within
the same context, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) has called Friday on Israel to take immediate steps to
protect medical personnel in the occupied and autonomous Palestinian
territories.
"Deliberate
attacks on medical personnel, vehicles and infrastructure constitute
a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and are strictly
prohibited," it said.
With additional reporting by Maha Abdul Fattah
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