UN: Israel holds up convoy with patients for seven hours
Published: Tuesday, Feb 27th 2024, 13:20
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The UN emergency aid office OCHA has accused the Israeli military of holding up an ambulance convoy with 24 evacuated patients for seven hours.
The military forced all patients who could walk and the paramedics out of the ambulances, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke reported on Tuesday in Geneva. Among them were a pregnant woman and a mother with a newborn baby. The incident occurred on Sunday in front of the Al Amal Hospital in Chan Junis. The convoy was led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and had been duly registered and approved. The Israeli army announced that it was examining the report.
The paramedics had to undress when the military stopped the convoy, Laerke reported. Three had been taken away. One of them had been released by Tuesday. In the end, the patients could have been distributed to other facilities. However, 31 seriously ill patients could no longer be transported. They were left behind, along with around 180 people who had sought refuge in the hospital and 45 members of the nursing staff. The hospital was practically destroyed by around 40 attacks within a month.
"This is not an isolated case," said Laerke. "Aid convoys are repeatedly shot at and systematically denied access to people in need. Humanitarian workers have been harassed, intimidated and arrested by Israeli forces, and humanitarian facilities have been hit," he continued.
©Keystone/SDA
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