Did Israel Target Medical Personnel in Jenin? (Yes)

Again, we continue with our exposure of Israeli atrocities in Jenin during its operation in April of 2002. Here, I document Israeli attacks on medical personnel in Jenin.

"uch search and arrest procedures, if conducted appropriately and in a way that does not endanger medical access, are legitimate. More troublesome are the repeated incidents in which IDF soldiers fired, without warning, on PRCS ambulances and medical staff. Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which IDF soldiers in the West Bank have fired on ambulances.118 The number and frequency of reported IDF shootings at Palestinian ambulances rose steeply from March 2002, immediately prior to Operation Defensive Shield.1"

"On April 3, the first day of the attack, IDF fire killed a uniformed nurse, twenty-seven-year-old Farwa Jammal, who had come to the assistance of a wounded civilian on the outskirts of the camp. As the nurse and her sister were trying to reach the wounded man, they came under IDF fire. The nurse was killed with a gunshot wound to the heart, and her sister was severely wounded (see above, "Attacks on Civilians")."

"Muweis told Human Rights Watch of several incidents in which his ambulance had been fired on while attempting to reach patients. In one such incident, on April 6 or 7, PRCS crews were informed that the IDF had given permission for three PRCS and one ICRC vehicle to enter Jenin camp. The ambulances proceeded past the two IDF positions outside the government hospital, and were subjected to a five-hour search. The PRCS ambulances then attempted to enter the camp, videoed by the IDF. According to Muweis:

They videotaped us and let us enter ten meters from behind the government hospital into the camp. We saw many snipers in the surrounding area, and then shots began to be fired around us. When we were shot at, we reversed and told the soldiers we could not go in. Then we were sure the video was just for media purposes. I heard that day they said on the news that the IDF had let ambulances enter the camp. That is not true. We do not know exactly where the shots fell, and we felt they were doing it just to scare us away. But it was clear to us that if we went further forward, we would be shot.123

One week later, circa April 13, Muweis went to collect an urgent case, a woman in the Sana'iyya area of Jenin city. He left the ambulance station at 11:30 p.m., navigated through streets subject to shifting checkpoints, and collected the patient. On his return, two tanks loomed out of the darkness in front of him, some twenty meters away. The tanks immediate opened fire around the ambulance.

The woman had been sleeping, but she woke up and became extremely distressed. I tried to shout at them that I had an injured woman with me, but no one seemed to be listening. I was yelling from inside the car, but if I had stepped outside I would have been shot. It lasted about five minutes. I stayed there until the tanks left, and then I drove off. They did not ask any questions or try to search me. Shooting has become a kind of talking for them."


Again, though, Israel committed "no atrocites" in Jenin, according to supports of the Israeli regime.