Israeli forces target ambulances in West Bank
In the West Bank last night Israeli forces targeted Palestinian ambulances as people demonstrated against the massive killings in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reports that Israeli forces in the southern West Bank city of Hebron fired gas canisters at an ambulance during the transfer of one of a wounded Palestinian. Soldiers injured the man while opening fire on demonstrators.
One of the gas bombs penetrated the rear windshield of the ambulance and detonated inside. Crew members suffered suffocation and were all treated in the hospital.
Further north in the central West Bank’s Ramallah, Israeli forces prevented an ambulance was passing a military checkpoint. The Red Crescent was attempting to transport several people who had been injured in the north, but to no avail. Israeli soldiers forced the ambulance crew at gunpoint to leave.
Officials at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society say they are concerned about the humanitarian tragedy facing the Palestinian people in the occupied territory as a result of Israeli practices of violating the most elementary rules of international humanitarian law. Israeli interference with medical personnel and duties contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and Protocol I of the addendum of 1977.