Israel Bombs Red Cross Ambulances

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Red Cross ambulances destroyed in Israeli air strike on rescue mission

· Volunteer paramedics demand UN guarantees

· Flags and lights prove no protection for aid teams

Suzanne Goldenberg in Tyre

Tuesday July 25, 2006

The Guardian

Coffins are prepared for mass burial in the Lebanese city of Tyre. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

The ambulance headlamps were on, the blue light overhead was flashing, and another light illuminated the Red Cross flag when the first Israeli missile hit, shearing off the right leg of the man on the stretcher inside. As he lay screaming beneath fire and smoke, patients and ambulance workers scrambled for safety, crawling over glass in the dark. Then another missile hit the second ambulance.

Even in a war which has turned the roads of south Lebanon into killing zones, Israel's rocket strike on two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances on Sunday night set a deadly new milestone.

Six ambulance workers were wounded and three generations of the Fawaz family, being transported to hospital from Tibnin with what were originally minor injuries, were left fighting for their lives. Two ambulances were entirely destroyed, their roofs pierced by missiles.

The Lebanese Red Cross, whose ambulance service for south Lebanon is run entirely by volunteers, immediately announced it would cease all rescue missions unless Israel guaranteed their safety through the United Nations or the International Red Cross.

For the villages below the Litani river, the ambulances were their last link to the outside world. Yesterday, that too was gone, leaving the 100,000 people of Tyre district with no way of reaching hospital other than to take to the roads themselves, under the roar of Israeli war planes.

The fateful call to the Red Cross operations room came through at about 10pm - well after dark, a time when almost no Lebanese now dare venture out.

At the Red Cross office in Tyre, three volunteer medics dressed in their orange overalls, and got into their ambulance. The plan was to drive halfway, meet the local ambulance, and transfer the three patients to their vehicle to return to Tyre.

By Nader Joudi's reckoning, the ambulances had been stopped for barely two minutes. Two patients had been loaded: Ahmed Mustafa Fawaz, who had been hit by shrapnel in the stomach, and his son, Mohammed, 14. The volunteer attendant was just easing Jamila Fawaz, 80, inside and setting up a drip when the missile struck. He managed to get the old woman and the child outside, but there was no way to reach Mr Fawaz. "It was horrible," Mr Joudi said. "He was screaming, and we couldn't do anything."

One of the members of the three-man crew from Tibnin radioed for help when another missile plunged through the roof. Ambulance crew and patients retreated to the cellar of a nearby building, then waited to be rescued, trying as best as they could to help the injured. "Each of us treated ourselves. There was no light," said Kassem Shaalan, a medic from Tyre.

By the time patients and ambulance crew reached Tyre, Mr Fawaz was unconscious after losing one leg, and suffering severe fractures to the other. His son had lost part of a foot, and his mother's body was riddled with shrapnel. Mr Joudi had shrapnel wounds in his left arm, and Mr Shaalan cuts to the face and leg.

He was adamant that the ambulances, with their Red Cross insignia on the roof, were clearly visible from the air. "I don't think there can be a mistake in two bombings of two ambulances," he said.

Although the air strike marked the first time ambulances have been hit by Israel in this war, for Mr Shaalan and the other Red Cross volunteers it was only a matter of time. After two weeks of strikes designed to choke off possible supply lines to Hizbullah guerrillas, travel to many villages was just too dangerous. Coastal villages even within a few kilometers of Tyre are cut off. In some, corpses remain trapped in the rubble for days.

But nothing is more perilous than travelling by night, and no more so than just before midnight that Sunday when another Red Cross crew set off from Tyre to pick up their injured colleagues.

"I was trembling," said Ali Deeb, one of the volunteers on the mission. "It was too dangerous, and helicopters buzzing, and all through this, I am thinking one thing: the ambulance that left half an hour before you has already been injured, and you could be next." Later yesterday afternoon, two missiles landed in the building across the road from the Red Cross office.

The toll

Lebanese

Yesterday

Civilian deaths 8

Hizbullah deaths 0

Since outbreak

Military deaths 66

Civilian deaths 377

Wounded 1,550+

Israeli

Yesterday

Civilian deaths 0

Military deaths 4

Since outbreak

Military deaths 24

Civilian deaths 17

Wounded 360+

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1828142,00.html

Edited July 25, 2006 by wife_of_mahmoud

[incanada1234 0]

Yeah, we get it. You hate Israel. Gotcha.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Yeah, we get it. You hate Israel. Gotcha.

No. You don't get it at all.

[PSoft 0]

Yeah, we get it. You hate Israel. Gotcha.

Yes I do in the same way you hate Muslims.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Yeah, we get it. You hate Israel. Gotcha.

Yes I do in the same way you hate Muslims.

Racist!!! Not all muslims are terrorists. Sheesh. People like you lump them all together.

Say something bad about the actual bad guys (Hamas and Hezbollah).

[sharky 2]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

[ursy 0]

Palestinias are no strangers with bombs. They don't respect the Israeli's so the Israeli's did not respect them with or without the Red Cross Sign. Many hide behind such things including churches and Islami Temples

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

Please search and post Mr. Smartie Pants. Prove me the hypocrite.

So you put Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel on equal footing?

[incanada1234 0]

No. You don't get it at all.

Mmm, I see. Yeah, you're right - you're quite a defender of Israel.

Yes I do in the same way you hate Muslims.

I hate the muslim religion and I hate terrorists. But I wouldn't say I hate all muslims. I have 2 sisters and 4 brothers who are muslim and I seem to love them just fine.

[sharky 2]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

Please search and post Mr. Smartie Pants. Prove me the hypocrite.

So you put Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel on equal footing?

Please re-read my last post, if you can manage that??!!!

I said the ISRAELI ARMY, and yes I would put them on equal footing......... in fact compared to Hamas and Hezbollah, they have killed FAR more innocent civilians in this conflict

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

Please search and post Mr. Smartie Pants. Prove me the hypocrite.

So you put Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel on equal footing?

Please re-read my last post, if you can manage that??!!!

I said the ISRAELI ARMY, and yes I would put them on equal footing......... in fact compared to Hamas and Hezbollah, they have killed FAR more innocent civilians in this conflict

Makes you wonder when it was we abandoned our once-vaunted principles of human rights and simple fairness. Very sad IMO

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

Please search and post Mr. Smartie Pants. Prove me the hypocrite.

So you put Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel on equal footing?

Please re-read my last post, if you can manage that??!!!

I said the ISRAELI ARMY, and yes I would put them on equal footing......... in fact compared to Hamas and Hezbollah, they have killed FAR more innocent civilians in this conflict

The Israeli army is an extension of the country of Israel. All you got is semantics????

I'm still waiting for your search results

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Luckystike,

judging by some of the past comments you've made, I would say that last statement was just a tiny bit hypocritical.......

and why don't you include the Israeli army as part of that bad guys group eh?

Please search and post Mr. Smartie Pants. Prove me the hypocrite.

So you put Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel on equal footing?

Please re-read my last post, if you can manage that??!!!

I said the ISRAELI ARMY, and yes I would put them on equal footing......... in fact compared to Hamas and Hezbollah, they have killed FAR more innocent civilians in this conflict

The Israeli army is an extension of the country of Israel.

I'll agree with you there - it is also, by definition, an extension of the government and people of Israel. The fact that this 'extension of the state' is in violation of many international mandates makes that fact rather disquieting, for me at least. Essentially no better than the people they are claiming to be fighting.

What seems clear is that both sides have dehumanised each other to such an extent that a lasting solution to the problems may never be found, at least - not in the short term). It also bothers me how the discourse around this issue has become thoroughly poisoned and polarised. So much for reason and common sense.

Edited July 25, 2006 by erekose

[sharky 2]

don't give be that B/S Luckystrike,

you sit there and have the nerve to laugh when inncoent Lebannese children are being blown to bits by the Israeli army, it just shows your ignorance!

and I think you'll find many Israeli citizens who do not condone the actions of their murderous army.......

but you wouldn't probably know that from watching your FOX news eh?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

don't give be that B/S Luckystrike,

you sit there and have the nerve to laugh when inncoent Lebannese children are being blown to bits by the Israeli army, it just shows your ignorance!

and I think you'll find many Israeli citizens who do not condone the actions of their murderous army.......

but you wouldn't probably know that from watching your FOX news eh?

Ahhh resorting to personal insults so quickly. That all you got? You essentially called me a racist. Prove it or shut your pie hole.