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Middle East
ICRC blasts Israel for shooting up ambulances
2002-03-08
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross voiced growing alarm at the killing of Palestinian ambulance workers by Israeli forces as another Palestinian medic died in a hail of fire. The latest death, of medical worker Sayed Shalayel in the Gaza Strip, brought to four the number of ambulance workers killed since Monday. Expressing what he called "outrage" at the deaths, Red Cross official Rene Kosirnik urged both sides and "first and foremost the Israeli armed forces" to respect the safety of medical personnel under international humanitarian law. "If there is one category that should be respected in all circumstances and its work facilitated, it is medical work and more specifically the emergency medical evacuation," Kosirnik told a news conference.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, two of whose staff were among this week's dead, has accused Israeli forces of targeting ambulances as they rush to recover wounded gunmen and civilians in the fighting. Israel's army commander for the West Bank, Brigadier-General Gerhson Yitzhak, again accused the Palestinians of using ambulances to move gunmen and ammunition, a claim the Red Cross said the authorities had failed so far to substantiate.

    Younis al-Khatib, the head of the Red Crescent Society, called the killings "atrocities."
    Perhaps we need an international agreement requiring gunnies to stay out of ambulances except when perforated. That would seem to be an international agreement stating the obvious, but with Arabs the tactical always seems to outweigh the strategic - and to outweigh agreements. So, what the hell? Just forget it.
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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