Occupation Forces Commit Blatant IHL Violations in Aqabat Jaber Refugee Camp

Israeli occupation forces obstructed PRCS teams, preventing them from reaching a critically wounded Palestinian during an Israeli raid on "Aqabat Jaber" refugee camp (Jericho Governorate) on March 1, 2023. Israeli soldiers pointed their weapons at the Society’s medics and threatened them before finally allowing them access to the wounded man on the condition that they do not move him or transport him to hospital. When the man went into cardiac arrest soldiers told the medics that he will be taken to an Israeli army ambulance. Instead, in a crying violation of the right to life and to emergency medical services, soldiers surrounded the wounded man, removed his ventilator, forced PRCS medics to stop performing CPR and took him to a military jeep. He passed away a few minutes later.

As medics were dispensing emergency aid to the wounded man, occupation soldiers committed another blatant IHL violation: they seized two PRCS ambulances and used them as shields to protect military vehicles and soldiers who hid behind them and continued firing at Palestinians.   

PRCS views with utmost concern the obstruction of its teams in the line of duty and the use of the Society’s ambulances, which are exclusively assigned to medical purposes, as a shield during a military operation. Such practices put civilian lives at risk and constitute a grave breach of IHL, mainly the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of War (1949) which applies de jure to the oPt. IHL ensures the protection of wounded persons in all circumstances. It provides that the wounded and the sick shall be collected, cared for, protected and treated humanely. IHL prohibits the use of medical vehicles for military purposes.

During this Israeli raid on Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, PRCS medics provided emergency medical services to 25 Palestinians suffering from tear gas suffocation.