On April 6, 2002, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that it was forced to curtail its activities in the West Bank directly due to threats posed to its vehicles and personnel by Israeli military forces.
The stakes are enormous as Israeli conducts the largest military operation in the region in over 20 years, yet is not permitting medical access to thousands of people in critical need.
Not only are the wounded being left to bleed to death, the infirm and women in labor left to fend for themselves, but the bodies of those already deceased left where they fell threaten to spread disease.
While many West Bank communities in Occupied Palestine have had to cope with inadequate medical infrastructure in even the best of times, the Israeli military operations are threatening the health of hundreds of thousands unnecessarily.
While the Israeli military continues to issue statements to the international press that it will allow free passage of emergency medical teams, the reality on the ground contradicts this.
Now the situation has grown so dim that not only are medical teams unable to get through, but ambulances and even hospitals themselves have come under attack by the Israeli military.
Compounding this dire situation is the fact that the Israeli military is also preventing the free passage of food, water, cooking fuel and medical supplies to the West Bank cities under siege.
Even a United Nations relief convoy was fired on by the Israeli army on April 1, 2002 as it tried to deliver aid to Ramallah.
Calling the situation imposed by the Israelis “totally unacceptable,” the ICRC has had three ambulances destroyed in the past week, one of which was run over by a tank in Bethlehem.
A further seven vehicles of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and other emergency relief agencies have also been destroyed or severely damaged.
In numerous other instances, Ambulances have been fired upon or forced to turn back due to Israeli warning shots.
The following medical establishments are also known to have been attacked: April 4: In El-Bireh, near Ramallah, Israeli troops occupied a hospital, forcing patients out of bed and preventing operations from continuing.
April 3: Israeli forces raided the Red Cross offices in Tul Karem.
April 1: Israeli troops ransacked the offices of the Palestinian Medical Relief Union, damaging records and equipment.
Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin has been damaged by Israeli gunfire, disrupting its water and electricity networks.
At a Red Crescent run maternity clinic in Ramallah, two doctors and two nurses were detained and taken away without charges.
April 4: In Jenin, seven tank shells struck the hospital, severing among other things the oxygen supply system In Jenin Refugee Camp, a clinic run by UNRWA was raided Israeli sources seized a clinic in Qalqiya, closing it to patients so that it may be used as an interrogation center.
In addition to these serious breeches of international law and humanitarian ethics are the innumerable cases of Red Cross/Red Crescent emergency teams being barred from offering treatment, even after receiving clearance by the Israeli military.
For example, Maha Ghubaet, age 39, died in Ramallah after a Red Cross team was prevented from reaching her by an Israeli tank even after Israeli authorities permitted the rescue by telephone.
 Infirm persons in need of routine medical treatment, such as pregnant women, heart patients, asthma sufferers and kidney dialysis patients are unable to obtain any services because of Israeli curfews and road blockades.
At other times emergency teams are only able to answer calls several hours late because they are being detained for extended and unnecessary periods at Israeli roadblocks.
It should be noted that for the first four days of Israeli attacks on Ramallah and the first two days of attacks on Bethlehem, not a single Red Cross/Red Crescent ambulance was allowed in to pick up the wounded.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights would like to point out that each of the above instances, along with the full accounts available from the ICRC and Palestinian Red Crescent Society, are violations of the 4th Geneva Convention, a binding international treaty which Israel signed that was drafted, above all, to allow for the free movement of emergency medical services in times of conflict.
The Israeli military has been continuously violating, among others, Articles 23, 56 and 63, specific to the freedom of medical care, thus constituting war crimes according to the 4th Geneva Convention.
We at Al Mezan call upon the international community to act immediately to intervene before any more innocent lives are needlessly lost.
We are specifically requesting that persons involved in the medical and health communities worldwide take steps to help stop this man-made medical catastrophe.
 We ask that you forward this call to your colleagues to supply aid, make donations, and most importantly help pressure world leaders to put an end to this unbearable situation imposed upon the Palestinian Territories.
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