Red Cross Alarmed at Killings of Palestinian Medics
Auntie Beeb | 08.03.2002 19:51
By Paul Holmes
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross voiced growing alarm on Friday at the killing of Palestinian ambulance workers by Israeli forces as another Palestinian medic died in a hail of fire.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross voiced growing alarm on Friday at the killing of Palestinian ambulance workers by Israeli forces as another Palestinian medic died in a hail of fire.
The latest death, of medical worker Sayed Shalayel in the Gaza Strip, brought to four the number of ambulance workers killed since Monday in the course of a fierce offensive that Israel says is aimed at smashing "Palestinian terror."
Expressing what he called "outrage" at the deaths, ICRC official Rene Kosirnik urged both sides and "first and foremost the Israeli armed forces" to respect the safety of medical personnel under international humanitarian law.
"If there is one category that should be respected in all circumstances and its work facilitated, it is medical work and more specifically the emergency medical evacuation," Kosirnik told a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, two of whose staff were among this week's dead, has accused Israeli forces of targeting ambulances as they rush to recover wounded gunmen and civilians in the fighting, a charge Israel denies.
Israel's army commander for the West Bank, Brigadier-General Gerhson Yitzhak, again accused the Palestinians on Friday of using ambulances to move gunmen and ammunition, a claim the ICRC said the authorities had failed so far to substantiate.
Younis al-Khatib, the head of the Red Crescent Society, called the killings "atrocities."
"We have a statement, a message to the Israeli army," Khatib said before leading a protest march by Palestinian doctors, nurses and ambulance teams to an Israeli military checkpoint between Palestinian-ruled Ramallah and Jerusalem.
"We will not rest until your commanders responsible for the death and injury of our ambulance teams and other humanitarian workers are prosecuted as war criminals," Khatib said.
Full story at -
http://news1.iwon.com/article/id/216922|top|03-08-2002::11:04|reuters.html
Expressing what he called "outrage" at the deaths, ICRC official Rene Kosirnik urged both sides and "first and foremost the Israeli armed forces" to respect the safety of medical personnel under international humanitarian law.
"If there is one category that should be respected in all circumstances and its work facilitated, it is medical work and more specifically the emergency medical evacuation," Kosirnik told a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, two of whose staff were among this week's dead, has accused Israeli forces of targeting ambulances as they rush to recover wounded gunmen and civilians in the fighting, a charge Israel denies.
Israel's army commander for the West Bank, Brigadier-General Gerhson Yitzhak, again accused the Palestinians on Friday of using ambulances to move gunmen and ammunition, a claim the ICRC said the authorities had failed so far to substantiate.
Younis al-Khatib, the head of the Red Crescent Society, called the killings "atrocities."
"We have a statement, a message to the Israeli army," Khatib said before leading a protest march by Palestinian doctors, nurses and ambulance teams to an Israeli military checkpoint between Palestinian-ruled Ramallah and Jerusalem.
"We will not rest until your commanders responsible for the death and injury of our ambulance teams and other humanitarian workers are prosecuted as war criminals," Khatib said.
Full story at -
http://news1.iwon.com/article/id/216922|top|03-08-2002::11:04|reuters.html
Auntie Beeb
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