The Red Cross has accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of killing two crew members of a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance on 5 November. The incident occurred during an IDF attack on missile launchers while the crew attempted to evacuate wounded civilians in Gaza.
The statement of censure issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross said that at the time of the incident the members of the ambulance crew “were wearing clearly marked fluorescent jackets” designed to protect them. Moreover, “the ambulance's siren was on and its flashing lights were visible at a great distance,” which should have prevented the IDF from shooting in their direction.
Marwan Bakr, head of the Gaza emergency evacuation services, who is responsible for ambulances in the Palestinian Authority area, said: “Ambulance crew members Ahmad Madoun and Hani Habib … were registered male nurses. They came to treat the injured. When they got out of the ambulance and ran towards them [the injured people] they were hit by IDF fire. Madoun was killed on the spot, while Habib died a few hours later of his injuries.”
“This is not the first incidence of paramedics being attacked by the IDF, not the second, and unfortunately not the last,” said Maskit Bendel, director of projects for Physicians for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “As early as 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield, we were forced to file three petitions against the IDF for hitting medical teams while they were evacuating the sick and injured. Consequently the IDF promised not to hit the teams while they were doing their work, and even to help them, but this did not happen.”
In 2004, Ms Bendel said, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling regarding the duties of military commanders during hostilities: the commander must see to the medical needs of the civilian population in an active manner.
“This is the minimal requirement,” Ms Bendel said, “and thus the fact that so many people were injured in Beit Hanun and [that] the IDF not only did not act to evacuate them properly but even hit the medical teams is a blatant violation of international law.”
“My paramedics are afraid to work out of fear for their lives,” said Mr Bakr, “but what choice do they have when a casualty is lying there bleeding?” He described how, in the Gaza strip, critically ill patients are detained for hours in ambulances at checkpoints and medical teams are treated in a humiliating manner by IDF soldiers and find it difficult to get to patients, who must then endure bone shaking travel on dirt roads.
The International Committee of the Red Cross's spokesman in Israel, Simon Schorno, said that the killing of the ambulance crew is much more serious than the problematic, daily reality described by Mr Bakr. He said, “This time, not only were paramedics prevented from administering treatment, in violation of the Geneva convention, but [they] were killed while treating the wounded. Paramedics, especially when they are identified as such, must be protected.”
The Israeli Defense Forces were asked to comment on the accusations of the Red Cross on Sunday, 19 November, but by the time the BMJ went to press on Tuesday 28 November, they had not done so.