Israeli forces are deliberately shooting at Palestinian paramedics
Amid the deadliest year on record for Palestinians in the West Bank, paramedics tell Novara Media Israeli soldiers are driving them away fro
“It’s not just the frequency of the attacks that has changed, Jumaa said, but the nature of the injuries too. ‘Israeli forces used to shoot Palestinians in their legs, but now intentionally shoot them in the neck or chest, which involves a more serious threat to their lives,’ she explained. During Israel’s raids on Jenin last month – the largest attack in two decades – she operated on three people with neck wounds. Recently, she said, she has also seen a significant number of children among the injured. ‘It is particularly distressing for me, as a mother.’
“Sometimes Jumaa is herself a target; as the attacks on Palestinians intensify, so too do attacks on ambulance workers trying to assist the injured. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), has recently recorded incidents of Israeli soldiers physically assaulting medics and targeting their ambulances with live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters. In total, there were 193 incidents targeting staff and vehicles in 2023 – a 310% increase compared with the same period last year.
“During the attacks on Jenin last month, Israeli soldiers killed eight Palestinians and injured 50 more, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reports. Israeli forces also directly targeted two ambulances belonging to the PRCS with live ammunition. Jumaa, who was in one of these ambulances, said that Israeli forces shot at the engine of the vehicle in order to disable it.
“Several health workers who spoke to Novara Media reported recent incidents of occupation forces blocking ambulances from reaching the injured and from getting them to hospital. 48-year-old paramedic Waleed Abu Alhaija recalled coming within a metre of a casualty in Jenin last month, only for an Israeli sniper to open fire, warning him and his colleagues against evacuating them. ‘The four of us paramedics suffered injuries from shrapnel from the sniper’s fire,’ he said. ‘The injured person continued to bleed until he died.’”
