https://www.rt.com/information/615480-palestine-israel-medics-hunt/How Israel hunts and executes Palestinian medics

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 newest warfare crime dedicated by Israel in a litany of warfare 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 reviews had 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 this moment @UNOCHA supported @PalestineRCS and Civil Protection to retrieve colleagues from a mass grave in #Rafah #Gaza that was marked with the emergency gentle from certainly one of their crushed ambulances.”

His thread went on to element how every week prior, on March 23, contact was misplaced with ten Palestine Purple Crescent Society (PRCS) and six Civil Protection first responders, in 5 ambulances and one hearth truck, who’d been dispatched to gather injured individuals, noting, “For days, OCHA coordinated to achieve the location however our entry was solely granted 5 days later.”

After they lastly accessed the location, they “recovered the buried our bodies of 8 PRCS, 6 Civil Protection and 1 UN workers,” he wrote, noting, “They had been killed of their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked autos. Carrying their gloves. On their strategy to save lives. This could by no means have occurred.”

Palestinian Civil Protection spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, individually stated, “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.”

Based on the PRCS, a ninth EMT is lacking and is believed to have been detained.

The UN, The Purple Cross, and OCHA have all issued statements of shock and condemnation of those murders. The Worldwide Federation of Purple Cross and Purple Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary Common Jagan Chapagain stated: “They wore emblems that ought to have protected them; their ambulances had been clearly marked. They need to have returned to their households; they didn’t. These guidelines of Worldwide Humanitarian Legislation couldn’t be clearer – civilians should be protected; humanitarians should be protected. Well being companies should be protected.”

Based on Chapagain, 30 PRCS volunteers and workers have been killed since October 2023 alone.

OCHA referred to as the murders “an enormous blow to us” and stated, “these abhorrent acts require accountability.” Based on the UN, “408 assist staff together with greater than 280 UNRWA workers have been killed in Gaza because the warfare started on 7 October 2023.”

Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency aid coordinator, wrote, “They had been killed by Israeli forces whereas making an attempt to avoid wasting 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 particular person was additionally injured. A couple of minutes later, in the course of the name, we heard the sound of Israeli troopers arriving on the location, talking in Hebrew. ‘Collect them on the wall and produce some restraints to tie them.’ This indicated that a lot of the medical workers had been nonetheless alive.”

The Israeli military media spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, predictably denied Israeli military wrong-doing and blamed Hamas, claiming the ambulances had 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 mentioning 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. In the course of the January 2009 Israeli warfare 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 had been based mostly in a PCRS heart in Ezbet abed Rabbo, east of Jabaliya, with Israeli shelling round us. By morning, we needed to evacuate. By the tip of the warfare, the middle was practically destroyed.

However when it comes to 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 not less than 14 pictures at medics and the ambulance I used to be in, focusing on the uniformed medics throughout supposed ceasefire hours, capturing one medic within the leg and damaging the automobile.

Per 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) immediately 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.

Per 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 harm and ensuing hearth 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 over time.

Two medics instructed me how after getting permission from Israel, by way of the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross (ICRC), to retrieve the wounded and the lifeless, three ambulances and an ICRC jeep got here below Israeli hearth repeatedly in northern Gaza.

“We had been driving to the world, talking with the Israelis on the cellphone. They’d inform us which strategy to drive, what street to take. Once we obtained close to the wounded, Israeli troopers began firing. I instructed them, ‘We now have coordination’ they usually stated to attend. Then they started firing at us once more.”

Based on 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 automobile in central Gaza, injuring an ICRC workers member and damaging the automobile.

One other medic was shot within the leg whereas on a mission for PRCS in Might 2008, and was twice focused by Israeli snipers in the course of the 2009 warfare. He was additionally in a constructing that was being bombed whereas emergency staff tried to evacuate the victims.

“I used to be with Dr. Issa Saleh coming down the steps from the sixth ground 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 may see our uniforms and the ambulances exterior.” Dr. Saleh was killed, decapitated by the bombing.

The testimonies I took then included many extra instances of medics going to avoid wasting injured Palestinians and coming below Israeli hearth, stopping them from reaching those that wanted assist. Reviews on the time additionally spoke of a handwritten order in Hebrew present in Gaza, directing Israeli troopers to “open hearth 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 bunch escorting civilians to their previous metropolis properties) hostage, blindfold and handcuff him and use him as a human defend.

Even again then, focused arrest and detention of medics was widespread as a type of collective punishment for the volunteers offering important emergency companies 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, medical doctors and emergency staff.

It’s clear that for Israeli troopers, killing medical staff is a coverage, whether or not in ambulances or hospitals. It’s additionally clear that whereas phrases of condemnation will generally 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 medical doctors 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 not too long ago, the Israeli Beersheba Courtroom 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 medical doctors is one other facet 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 potential, together with by stopping the entry of medical gear 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 had 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 staff unabated. No justice.