The
new aggression raised the number of Palestinian medical staffers killed
by Israeli occupation forces to 18 martyrs.
More
than 250 members of Palestinian medical teams were injured while
performing their humanitarian duty while dozens of hospitals and clinics
were razed to the ground by Israeli occupation forces, said a report by
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
At
least other 47 Palestinian civilians breathed their last because Israeli
occupation troops blocked ambulances from rushing them to hospitals.
The
water-tight Israeli restrictions clamped on the West Bank and Gaza Strip
also forced 20 pregnant Palestinian women to deliver their babies at
Israeli military checkpoints.
The
report registered more than 500 cases in which Palestinian medical teams
were denied the right of free movement, causing a grave deterioration of
health conditions of injured Palestinians.
More
than 30 ambulances were damaged and 66 others were partially destroyed
by Israeli occupation forces, added the center.
Meanwhile,
the Palestinian Red Crescent repeatedly complained that its ambulances
had been exposed to Israeli violations for more than 200 times.
In
addition, Israeli forces had deliberately cut the Crescent’s phone
lines, electricity and water supplies for long periods sometimes
exceeding two weeks’ time span.
Israeli
occupation forces also launched 48 attacks on Palestinian health centers
since the beginning of Intifada till August 2002, added the Palestinian
center.
They
also sealed off many hospitals in the Palestinian self-ruled areas, such
as Ramallah hospital, Jenin hospital and the Red Crescent hospital in
the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
But,
with all of these iron-fist restrictions and incessant harassment,
Palestinian medical teams set an example of courageous ability for
urgent movement to save Palestinian lives in clear defiance of
armed-to-the-teeth Israeli occupation troops.
