Tuesday 18th May 2004

 

 

Not content with launching a full-scale attack upon the residents of

Rafah killing 16 the Israeli occupation forces are preventing medical

teams from accessing the dead and injured. Despite international

condemnation of their attacks, the occupation forces have also defied

International Law yet again, by denying civilians the right to medical

care. The hospital in Rafah is overflowing with the casualties that

ambulances were able to reach, but those they could not lie dying in

their homes and streets. So far PMRS has received the following news:

Said Lemghayer (23) from the Tel El Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, died

instantly when Israeli snipers shot him whilst he was standing outside

his house. His family tried to transfer him to a hospital but the

occupation forces prevented the ambulance from reaching him. Snipers

have been planted on every rooftop in the area and are shooting at

anyone they see. As a result, repeated attempts by the ambulance to get

to Said were met with heavy firing. Eventually the family had to resort

to putting him in shop refrigerator that is normally used to store dairy

products.

Fathi Abu Ermaneh (35) was shot in the neck by a sniper whilst standing

in the street. However, medical teams have not been able to reach him

because the snipers start shooting as soon as they attempt to move. He

remains in the street and because no one can reach him, they do not know

if he is dead or alive.

On the outskirts of Rafah, Munira As Siguli was injured whilst in her

house. Again, snipers have prevented the ambulance from reaching her, so

nobody knows whether she is dead or alive.

Witnesses have reported that there is film footage showing an ambulance

attempting to reach an injured person lying on the ground. Due to the

intense shooting the ambulance is prevented from doing so. In the end

one of the team has to get out of the ambulance and drag the body

towards the vehicle.

A woman from the Abu Ghali family in Tel Al Sultan attempted to get to a

hospital as she was about to give birth. Again she was prevented from

doing so and with aid of the local women, had to give birth at home,

placing the life of both Mother and child at risk.

A brother and sister from Tel Al Sultan, around ten and eleven years old

and called Ahmed and Asma AlMughayer, were shot whilst inside their

home. The ambulance was prevented from accessing them and the hospital

has now been informed that they bled to death. The hospital is appealing

to all human rights and humanitarian organizations to help them in

facilitating the transfer of these two dead children to hospital.

Ismail Balawi was killed a few hours ago after his son was killed this

morning. However, he has two children who are injured but stuck in their

house with ambulances unable to reach them. These two children are in a

very serious health situation as they are both bleeding heavily. We

again urge you to contact International Humanitarian organizations to

help ambulances to reach them.

There are many more reports about people being killed or injured in

areas such as Qadisia and Akbet bin Nafe' but because no one is allowed

to reach them, we are unable to confirm their condition.

The Abu Yusef Al Najar hospital used to be a local clinic but was

converted to a hospital when the Intifada started. It lacks many

amenities, including an intensive care unit. It has no electricity and

is now dependant on a generator. The hospital cannot receive all the

injured and three of the dead have had to be stored in a room because

there is not enough space in the morgue. After coordinating with the

Israelis, the hospital was given permission to transfer the injured to

the European and Nasser hospitals in Khan Yunis. However, once the

ambulances began to move the patients, they came under heavy fire, and

had to abandon the mission.

According to witnesses the Israeli soldiers have also imposed an ambush

around a series of ambulances. They allowed them to enter Tel Al Sultan

from Rafah in order to collect patients and transfer them to the Abu

Yousef Najar hospital in Rafah, but on their return journey the

occupation forces surrounded six of these ambulances preventing them

from leaving the Tel Al Sultan medical clinic. They also demolished the

clinic's fence.

In addition to the dead and injured, patients with chronic and

non-communicable diseases are being prevented from accessing treatment.

There are a considerable number of patients urgently requiring dialysis

and chemotherapy but can not get to hospital, which places their health

in a critical situation.

PMRS is asking the International community to contact all humanitarian,

human rights and health organizations to intervene by pressurizing the

Israeli occupation forces to allow the free movement of medical teams.

The Israeli occupation forces' appalling disregard for the Palestinians'

right to access to medical care must be prevented otherwise there will

be a serious humanitarian disaster in Rafah. Please ask all

organizations to contact:

Shaul Mofaz

Minister of Defense

Kaplan Street

Hakirya

Tel-Aviv 61909

Tel: +972 3 5692010

Fax: +972 3 6916940

Tommy Lapid

Ministry of Justice

29 Salah al-Din Street

Jerusalem 91010

Israel

Tel: +972 2 6708511

Fax: +972 2 6285438

E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il

 

Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)

 

For further information please contact: pmrsupdates@yahoo.com