A few days ago Israeli spokesperson Mark Regev claimed on Channel 4 news that Israel is trying its best to work with the Red Cross. He said this after it emerged that Israel had prevented ICRC ambulances from accessing starving children for four days, eventually allowing medical workers to walk 1.5km to the site and evacuate the wounded on donkey carts.
Here’s another illustration of what Israel ‘working with’ humanitarian agencies looks like:
“The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) suspended activities in the Al Zeitoun and Al Atatra regions as of 11 January, after their ambulances were exposed to gunfire in those regions on 9 and 10 January. Two ambulance personnel were injured and one ambulance was damaged in these incidents. The PRCS further noted that only five of 135 recent attempts to coordinate access to affected areas were successful; however, “in the five cases [the PRCS was] not able to complete [the] humanitarian tasks because of the obstacles and the gunfire…” [note: the PRCS is, along with the ICRC, is part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies]
On Friday the Israeli Air Force “totally destroyed” a church-run clinic in Gaza. Warning missiles were fired initially to force any inhabitants of the building to flee, meaning the attack was deliberate. The clinic “used to offer treatment free-of-charge and medical services to the public”, concentrating in particular on pregnant women and children. On Saturday two more clinics were bombed: , an Israeli jet levelled a Caritas clinic in central Gaza, razing it to the ground along with several surrounding houses, while a church-run clinic funded by Christian Aid was struck, “completely… [destroying] the building and its contents, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of medical equipment”. Again, the clinic – which provided free health care to residents, including neo-natal care – was deliberately targeted, with inhabitants receiving a telephone call warning them to evacuate the building within 15 minutes before it was hit.
That’s at least three clinics bombed in less than two days, in part of a systematic pattern of targeting ambulances, hospitals and medical workers. Just something to bear in mind the next time some scumbag Israeli or American official claims that this is a war on “terrorist infrastructure” and not the civilian population of Gaza.
Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian | 3 Comments
Tags: ambulances, Cast Lead, clinics, Gaza, hospitals, war crimes
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Israel has isolated, surrounded and bombed Gaza City for days – now it’s going in.
or gone in, i should say.