Palestine Red Crescent Society 16 July 2005
On Wednesday, July 13, at 12:30am, a PRCS ambulance was stopped at Howwara checkpoint while on route from transporting a delivery case from Aljit village to Rafidya hospital in Nablus. One of the soldiers opened the rear door of the ambulance and ordered the team to step out. The soldiers asked if the car contained any weapons and the ambulance crew responded ‘NO’.
The soldiers then started searching the ambulance by opening the ambulance’ cabinets and they proceeded to throw the sheets and pillows about. The soldiers then ordered the team to lift the seat opposite the patient’s bed, the team obeyed and were surprised to find an Israeli Army M16 weapon inside the seat.
The soldiers threw the crews’ ID cards, immediately stepped back and pointed their weapons at the medical team. The soldiers questioned the crew about the source of the weapon, and the crew denied any knowledge about weapon and refused the soldiers’ order to remove it. The soldiers then laughed and mocked the team as the soldiers removed the weapon.
Such act of planting a weapon by the occupation forces constitutes a breach of International Humanitarian Law and shows lack of respect to the work of PRCS medical teams and to the Society’s protected emblem according the Geneva conventions, in addition to impeding the humanitarian mission of the medical mission’s work.
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