Palestine medics protest at UN to demand protection

Members of the Palestinian health sector yesterday held a protest outside the United Nations headquarters in Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank, demanding protection from the Israeli occupation army and settlers.

Oganised by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the protest included representatives of medical, health and ambulance service providers in Palestine.

During the protest, Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, delivered a letter to the United Nations office addressed to UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, including a demand to provide protection to medical personnel, while detailing Israeli attacks against them.

READ: Hamas calls for judicial intervention to stop Israel crimes

Al-Kaila told reporters that the health personnel are subjected to continuous violations by the Israeli occupation, noting that the attack on Jenin hospitals earlier this month when occupation forces stormed the city prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded, leaving them to bleed to death.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, she continued, has documented 15 attacks on hospitals, 54 on ambulances, 37 on paramedics and 81 on free access for Palestinian patients to reach treatment centres so far this year.

She considered these cruel and illegal practices “clear violations of many provisions of international humanitarian law.”

For his part, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Mamoun Al-Abbasi, said Israel has not stopped violating international humanitarian law and attacking medical personnel in Palestine, and PRCS personnel in particular.

He explained that since 2000, Israel has killed 22 PRCS crew members and carried out 193 direct attacks on medical staff.

READ: Israelis block highways, train stations in protest against judicial overhaul