Living dangerously in West Bank
Almost two weeks have elapsed since the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched an all-out assault on Palestinian-controlled territories, killing and injuring hundreds of armed and unarmed Palestinians, and rounding up thousands more. The conflict has resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, the heaviest suffered by the Palestinians, but, since the Israeli incursions, the human suffering has amplified as the IDF has been targeting medical services’ staff and vehicles rushing to care for the wounded. Israel has defended its policy of preventing ambulances from entering combat areas, saying that in the past it has found explosives hidden inside a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance. In the eyes of the international medical community, this is a clear violation of a number of humanitarian conventions, with some groups describing this as an «inhumane act.» «Over the past two days, the staff of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Bethlehem have been threatened at gunpoint, warning shots have been fired at ICRC vehicles in Nablus and Ramallah, two ICRC vehicles have been damaged by Israeli tanks in Tulkarem and the ICRC premises in Tulkarem has been broken into,» the group said in a statement last Friday from Tel Aviv. «Such conduct is totally unacceptable, for its jeopardizes not only the life-saving work of emergency medical services but also the ICRC’s other humanitarian activities.» Dozens of Palestinians have died of their wounds in the streets and inside homes after raids by the IDF, while ambulances and medical staff were held back at army roadblocks. At least 14 bodies were found in the rubble in the West Bank town of Nablus yesterday, the Agence France-Presse reported from the area, quoting Palestinian medics. Only on Tuesday were Palestinian and international medical services allowed to enter the city of Nablus and retrieve the bodies of Palestinians lying in the streets and under the rubble, as well as those wounded who had taken refuge in basements. ‘No mercy’ In an e-mail exchange with Kathimerini English Edition on April 4, Dr Glen Bowman, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Kent, discussed the situation in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour and expressed the frustration of medical service staff and provided more names and places of humanitarian crisis: «I have just spoken with one of my chief informants in Beit Sahour, the town in which I work on the West Bank. The tanks came into Beit Sahour at about 2.30 a.m. on [April 2], and have now occupied and pinned down the town. One of the major housing blocks has been evacuated, as troops have been barracked in it. You are hearing of what is happening in Bethlehem, this is a small town a mile to the east of it, with a population of around 12,000. «There are no journalists in the town. The military has declared it and all the other places it has taken ‘closed areas’ which exclude journalists. «The clinic in Beit Sahour has not been able to take in any of those wounded in the reoccupation; ambulances are considered by the Israelis as potential weapon-carriers and, as a result, the dead and wounded cannot be picked up and brought to morgues or hospitals. «Yesterday, Majid Nasser, the clinic’s head doctor, whom I know well, managed to get one wounded person in from the town and immediately had the soldiers kick in the doors of the clinic and take the patient away, telling Nasser and his staff that if they took any patients in they would all be arrested. «The officer in charge of that squad told Nasser that an ‘undeclared curfew’ had been imposed on the town, and that if anyone was seen in the streets, they would be shot. He told Nasser that if he stepped one meter outside the door of the clinic he would be killed. «I feel uncomfortable sending this sort of stuff out to you over e-mail, but I am more uncomfortable with hearing it and staying silent.»
