The current case of 15 uniformed first responders killed on their approach to work is however the newest in a protracted, lengthy line of comparable crimes
The Israeli military has executed 15 Palestinian medics in Gaza, buried them and lied about them being “terrorists.” For these paying consideration, this barbarism will not be new, solely the most recent battle crime dedicated by Israel in a litany of battle crimes over the a long time.
The mix of the medics being tied up, executed and buried in a mass grave was so horrific that even normally detached world media reported on it, albeit with out the outrage that might have accompanied such stories have been the perpetrator an enemy of the West. (Warning: disturbing video.)
On March 31, Jonathan Whittall, the Head of the UN Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs within the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) posted on X, “First responders ought to by no means be a goal. But right now @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Protection to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that was marked with the emergency mild from certainly one of their crushed ambulances.”
His thread went on to element how per week prior, on March 23, contact was misplaced with ten Palestine Pink Crescent Society (PRCS) and six Civil Protection first responders, in 5 ambulances and one fireplace truck, who’d been dispatched to gather injured individuals, noting, “For days, OCHA coordinated to succeed in the location however our entry was solely granted 5 days later.”
Once they lastly accessed the location, they “recovered the buried our bodies of 8 PRCS, 6 Civil Protection and 1 UN employees,” he wrote, noting, “They have been killed of their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked automobiles. Carrying their gloves. On their approach to save lives. This could by no means have occurred.”
Palestinian Civil Protection spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, individually mentioned, “One of many Civil Protection crews had his toes tied, one other had his garments faraway from his higher physique, one other was beheaded. Amongst all of the martyrs, the least harmed had 20 bullets fired at him, in his chest.”
In response to the PRCS, a ninth EMT is lacking and is believed to have been detained.
The UN, The Pink Cross, and OCHA have all issued statements of concern and condemnation of those murders. The Worldwide Federation of Pink Cross and Pink Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary Common Jagan Chapagain mentioned: “They wore emblems that ought to have protected them; their ambulances have been clearly marked. They need to have returned to their households; they didn’t. These guidelines of Worldwide Humanitarian Regulation couldn’t be clearer – civilians have to be protected; humanitarians have to be protected. Well being providers have to be protected.”
In response to Chapagain, 30 PRCS volunteers and employees have been killed since October 2023 alone.
OCHA known as the murders “an enormous blow to us” and mentioned, “these abhorrent acts require accountability.” In response to the UN, “408 assist employees together with greater than 280 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza because the battle started on 7 October 2023.”
Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency aid coordinator, wrote, “They have been killed by Israeli forces whereas attempting to save lots of lives. We demand solutions & justice.”
The Guardian cites PRCS’ Dr. Bashar Murad, who spoke to one of many paramedics within the convoy:
“He knowledgeable us that he was injured and requested help, and that one other individual was additionally injured. A couple of minutes later, throughout the name, we heard the sound of Israeli troopers arriving on the location, talking in Hebrew. ‘Collect them on the wall and convey some restraints to tie them.’ This indicated that numerous the medical employees have been nonetheless alive.”
The Israeli military media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, predictably denied Israeli military wrong-doing and blamed Hamas, claiming the ambulances have been “advancing suspiciously” towards Israeli forces. He declared the execution of the medics be an elimination of “a Hamas navy operative, together with 8 different terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
Observers on X rebuffed Shoshani, together with declaring the Israeli military has been attacking ambulances for a really very long time.
Gaza medics below Israeli assault since 2009
I can communicate from private expertise. Throughout the January 2009 Israeli battle on Gaza, I used to be amongst a handful of worldwide volunteers using in PRCS ambulances, to doc their work and the victims they rescued.
The primary evening of the Israeli land invasion, we have been primarily based in a PCRS middle in Ezbet abed Rabbo, east of Jabaliya, with Israeli shelling round us. By morning, we needed to evacuate. By the tip of the battle, the middle was almost destroyed.
However by way of direct assaults on ambulances, and hospitals, I can attest they occurred towards unarmed medics in ambulances not carrying any Palestinian resistance, however retrieving wounded or killed Palestinian civilians, together with aged ones.
In a single occasion, an Israeli sniper fired at the least 14 photographs at medics and the ambulance I used to be in, focusing on the uniformed medics throughout supposed ceasefire hours, taking pictures one medic within the leg and damaging the car.
Every week prior, a medic I had accompanied one harmful night within the northwest of Gaza was killed the subsequent day when the Israeli military fired a flechette shell (dart bomb) straight at his ambulance, shredding him with the razor sharp darts, killing him. Survivors from the scene corroborated there have been no resistance, solely medics and wounded and killed civilians.
Every week later, the Israeli military repeatedly bombed al-Quds hospital, which means medics needed to evacuate to al-Shifa hospital, risking being shot by Israeli troopers whereas doing so. I used to be with the medics and noticed the injury and ensuing fireplace from the Israeli bombing of the hospital.
I later took testimonies from different PRCS medics who had been focused by the Israeli military, some a number of instances through the years.
Two medics instructed me how after getting permission from Israel, by way of the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross (ICRC), to retrieve the wounded and the useless, three ambulances and an ICRC jeep got here below Israeli fireplace repeatedly in northern Gaza.
“We have been driving to the world, talking with the Israelis on the cellphone. They’d inform us which approach to drive, what street to take. After we bought close to the wounded, Israeli troopers began firing. I instructed them, ‘We’ve coordination’ they usually mentioned to attend. Then they started firing at us once more.”
In response to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), that very same day, Israeli troopers fired on a convoy of 11 ambulances led by a clearly marked ICRC car in central Gaza, injuring an ICRC employees member and damaging the car.
One other medic was shot within the leg whereas on a mission for PRCS in Might 2008, and was twice focused by Israeli snipers throughout the 2009 battle. He was additionally in a constructing that was being bombed whereas emergency employees tried to evacuate the victims.
“I used to be with Dr. Issa Saleh coming down the steps from the sixth flooring of an house constructing in Jabaliya, evacuating a martyr, when the Israelis once more shelled the constructing. They knew there have been medics inside. They might see our uniforms and the ambulances outdoors.” Dr. Saleh was killed, decapitated by the bombing.
The testimonies I took then included many extra circumstances of medics going to save lots of injured Palestinians and coming below Israeli fireplace, stopping them from reaching those that wanted assist. Experiences on the time additionally spoke of a handwritten order in Hebrew present in Gaza, directing Israeli troopers to “open fireplace additionally upon rescue.”
In 2007, within the West Financial institution, throughout an Israeli invasion of Nablus, I noticed Israeli troopers take a Palestinian Medical Aid (PRM) volunteer (who had been a part of a gaggle escorting civilians to their outdated metropolis properties) hostage, blindfold and handcuff him and use him as a human defend.
Even again then, focused arrest and detention of medics was frequent as a type of collective punishment for the volunteers offering important emergency providers to wounded Palestinians. When not arrested, medics and ambulances would nonetheless be routinely denied entry to emergency areas, denying the wounded the eye they desperately wanted.
Quick ahead to 2023 and 2024. The Israeli military repeatedly bombed hospitals all through Gaza, invaded them, occupied and destroyed them, routinely killing medics, docs and emergency employees.
It’s clear that for Israeli troopers, killing medical employees is a coverage, whether or not in ambulances or hospitals. It’s additionally clear that whereas phrases of condemnation will typically be uttered by Western powers, Israel is rarely held accountable for these crimes.
Denying civilians medical care
In January, I wrote about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian physician from northern Gaza kidnapped and imprisoned by the Israeli military final December. In that article I famous that three docs from Gaza in Israeli prisons had already been tortured to dying within the final yr plus, and that there’s grave concern for Dr. Abu Safiya’s life.
Since then, different Palestinian hostages launched from Israeli detention have confirmed Dr. Abu Safiya is being tortured. Extra just lately, the Israeli Beersheba Court docket has issued a six-month administrative detention order for Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, administrative detention being the means Israel makes use of to imprison Palestinians with out cost.
The kidnapping and torture of Palestinian docs is one other side of Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza’s well being system. It’s a part of Israel’s assaults on Palestinians themselves, depriving them of life-saving care, a part of the decades-long coverage of killing Palestinians by each means doable, together with by stopping the entry of medical tools and meals, ravenous Palestinians who escaped bombs and sniping.
I’ll submit the identical rhetorical query I’ve posed advert naseum: What would the worldwide response be like if it have been Russia point-blank assassinating uniformed, unarmed medics? It might be continuous 24/7 howling in company media, victims faces and tales spoken of, calls for for extra sanctions…
However Israel does this time and again over the a long time and all Palestinians get are muted phrases of concern and requires investigation, permitting Israel to proceed slaughtering medics and emergency employees unabated. No justice.
The statements, views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of the creator and don’t essentially characterize these of RT.
