Red Cross: Israel delayed access to Gaza wounded
Mitsos**
GENEVA – The international Red Cross accused Israel on Thursday of
"unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three Gaza City
homes hit by shelling where they eventually found 15 dead and 18
wounded, including young children too weak to stand.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, said
the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach the site in the
Zeitoun neighborhood for four days. Ambulances could not get to the
neighborhood because the Israeli army had erected large earthen barriers
that blocked access.
Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area and accused
Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Since Wednesday,
Israel has observed a daily three-hour halt in operations to allow
humanitarian evacuations and aid deliveries throughout Gaza.
The ICRC normally conducts confidential negotiations with warring
parties, and its accusation against Israel was a rare public criticism
of one party in a conflict over a specific incident.
Eventually, rescuers from the international Red Cross and Palestine Red
Crescent received permission to go into the shelled houses during the
halt in fighting Wednesday, four days after the buildings were hit by
Israeli shells.
"This is a shocking incident," Pierre Wettach, head of the ICRC for the
region, said.
The rescue team "found four small children next to their dead mothers in
one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man
was also found alive, too weak to stand up," the statement said. "In
all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses" in one of the
houses, it added.
The organization said the children and the wounded had to be transported
by donkey cart to ambulances.
"The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not
assist the wounded," the international Red Cross said. "Neither did they
make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the
wounded."
The ICRC said it believes "in this instance, the Israeli military failed
to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for
and evacuate the wounded."
"It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access
unacceptable," the Red Cross statement said.
The organization alleged Israel also refused requests to go to other
destroyed houses in the same neighborhood of Gaza City, where the ICRC
had reports of more wounded people.
Red Cross medics in Gaza could not be reached for comment on the
condition of the children rescued from Zeitoun. ICRC spokeswoman
Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva said the children were evacuated during
Wednesday's three-hour cease-fire. The Palestine Red Crescent said the
children are in the Shifa and al-Quds hospitals in Gaza City.
The Associated Press was not able to visit the hospitals because of the
dangers of moving around Gaza, and it has been difficult to obtain
information from the hospitals about the children because staff are
overwhelmed with casualties and unable to talk with reporters.
Red Cross spokesman Iyad Nasr said emergency crews evacuated 105 more
injured people from Zeitoun on Thursday and were struggling to find
shelter for them. Also Thursday, a Palestinian health official said the
bodies of 35 people have been found in the rubble of bombed out
buildings in Gaza City during a three-hour pause in fighting, many of
them in the Zeitoun neighborhood.
The Israeli military did not comment on the specifics of the Red Cross
allegations, but said it is closely cooperating with international aid
organizations during the Gaza fighting to assist civilians caught in the
crossfire.
"The Israel Defense Forces are engaged in a battle with the Hamas
terrorist organization that has deliberately used Palestinian civilians
as human shields," a military statement said. "The IDF in no way
intentionally targets civilians and has demonstrated its willingness to
abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to
assist innocent civilians."
Israel said it would investigate any formal complaint against the army's
conduct within the constraints of the current military operation.
Israel's ambassador in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, denied his country
was failing in its humanitarian obligations.
"Once the military activity was over, then it was possible for
humanitarian teams to evacuate the wounded," he told The Associated Press.
Leshno-Yaar said Israel respects international humanitarian law and is
working with aid groups to allow the wounded to be removed and in some
cases transferred to hospitals in Israel.
But aid groups say safe passage around Gaza remains a problem.
On Thursday, the United Nations said it was halting all aid deliveries
inside Gaza after gunfire from an Israeli tank killed an aid truck driver.
The international Red Cross said it would temporarily stop sending
convoys outside of Gaza City after one of its vehicles came under fire
from an Israeli position at the Netzarim crossing during the three-hour
halt in fighting Thursday. One driver was lightly injured.
ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said the convoy, which was escorting
ambulances to the south of Gaza, was forced to abort its mission.
The World Health Organization said 21 Palestinian medical workers have
been killed and 30 injured since Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_re_mi_ea/eu_red_cross_gaza
--
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Mitsos**
it was not the work of Israel because Israel is not targeting civilians
and yet most are civilians who died and hospitals and schools were
targeted as well. Then blame it on Hamas. Those bastards " hide "
everywhere so Israel can hit hit any target they want because of those
"bastards" the Hamas.
Keep on denying and killing. The purpose is to make the life's of them
so terrible that many of them will leave and make place for settlers.
There is no place for Palestinians on the Zionist map. After all "god"
gave that land to them and even that time they got the land through
genocide. Khazar Jews are tough.