IDF Checkpoints
& Palestinian Ambulances
(Updated June 2002)
During the
al-Aksa intifada, many human rights groups and politicians leveled allegations against Israel concerning abuse by IDF soldiers against Palestinian
Red Crescent ambulances. These allegations typically said that
soldiers gratuitously delayed ambulances attempting to cross from
the West Bank into
Israel proper, resulting in inconveniences, medical complications
and even death for the sick passengers on-board. These accounts
portrayed the delays as wanton acts of cruelty on the
part of Israeli soldiers against Palestinians in need of
medical attention.
The accusations were based on fact: ambulances
were indeed routinely stopped and searched at Israeli border checkpoints. What the allegations failed to do, however, was put this fact into a broader context and mis-explained the reason for the stoppages.
The
reason that ambulances were held and searched at checkpoints
was due to the perifidous actions of Palestinian terrorists in their unending missions to harm Israeli citizens. These terrorists frequently used ambulances as a means
to transport bombs, guns and other weapons. Many of the terrorists who
triggered suicide bombings in Israel gained access to the country by
driving or riding in Red Crescent ambulances.
For example:
-
On May 17, 2002, an explosive belt was
found in a Red Crescent ambulance at a checkpoint near
Ramallah. The bomb, the same type generally used in suicide
bombings, was hidden under a gurney on which a sick child
was lying. The driver, Islam Jibril, was already wanted
by the IDF, and admitted that this was not the first
time that an ambulance had been used to transport explosives
or terrorists. According to Jibril, he was given the
bomb by Mahmoud Titi, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, which the U.S. State Department has listed as
a terrorist organization, and which is affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
The bomb was removed from the ambulance and detonated
in the presence of a representative of the International
Committee of the Red Cross. In a statement issued the
same day, the ICRC said that it “understands the
security concerns of the Israeli authorities, and has
always acknowledged their right to check ambulances,
provided it does not unduly delay medical evacuations.”
The sick passengers in the ambulance were escorted by
soldiers to a nearby hospital.1
-
In January, 2002, Wafa Idris blew herself
up on the crowded Jaffa Street in Jerusalem,
becoming one of the first female suicide bombers. She
was an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent,
as was Mohammed Hababa, the Tanzim operative who sent
her on her mission. She left the West Bank by way of
an ambulance.2
-
In October, 2001, Nidal Nazal, a Hamas operative in Kalkilya, was arrested by the IDF.
He was an ambulance driver for the Palestinia Red Crescent,
and information indicates that he exploited the unrestricted
travel to serve as a messenger between the Hamas headquarters in several West Bank towns.3
The accusations leveled against Israel by
its critics based their condemnations for stopping ambulances on statements of international
law, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention. While
the Geneva Convention does place particular emphasis on the
immunity and neutrality of ambulances and emergency medical
personnel in war zones, the belief that Israel should ignore a clear
and present danger to its citizens, or else violate international
law, is a distortion.
It is in fact the Palestinian terrorists - the ones who are using ambulances to smuggle explosives into Israel -
that are compromising the Red Crescent’s immunity and
neutrality.
Sources:
1“Bomb found in Red Crescent
Ambulance,” Ha’aretz, 6/12/02.
2Israeli
Foreign Ministry
3Ibid. |