[News] Israeli forces bring terror to Jerusalem hospital

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-forces-bring-terror-jerusalem-hospital 



  Video: Israeli forces bring terror to Jerusalem hospital

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> - 15 
August 2017

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDRS2lVVfwY shows Israeli 
occupation forces bringing terror and violence inside East Jerusalem’s 
Al-Makassed hospital.

At one point, Israeli occupation forces tried to seize a critically 
wounded man who was being taken to surgery.

The video shows medics and civilians attempting to protect the man, 
Muhammad Abu Ghanam 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-ghanam>, from being 
seized. But the 20-year-old died about 20 minutes after the commotion.

The video was published Sunday by the human rights group B’Tselem, along 
with a harrowing report 
<http://www.btselem.org/20170810_police_raid_east_jerusalem_hospital> on 
the 21 July Israeli raid.

The assault was part of Israel’s violent reaction 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-boy-killed-during-al-aqsa-protest> 
to the campaign of civil disobedience and protests by Jerusalemites last 
month against Israeli moves to tighten control over the al-Aqsa mosque 
compound <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-aqsa-mosque>.

Abu Ghanam was one of the six Palestinians 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-boy-killed-during-al-aqsa-protest> 
killed by Israeli forces during protests related to al-Aqsa.


    Maternity ward raided

“Words fail to convey the gravity of the police’s conduct inside the 
hospital,” B’Tselem said.

“The fright engendered by scores of armed police raiding a hospital 
cannot be downplayed. When these feelings of terror are accompanied by 
an assault on medical staff and interference with medical care, the 
situation escalates to one of a real risk to the lives of the many 
patients in the hospital.”

B’Tselem’s report includes testimonies from medical staff describing 
dozens of heavily armed Israeli personnel raiding the hospital. They 
forced their way in, attacking security guards and civilians, who tried 
to defend the facility, with stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets.

The Israelis kicked people out of the blood bank where dozens of 
volunteers were trying to donate desperately needed blood. They raided 
the maternity ward, including a room where a mother was present, and 
sprayed pepper spray into another that was empty. Staff gathered most of 
the mothers in one room and took their babies to the nursery to protect 
them.


    Israeli forces blocked ambulance

Abu Ghanam had been involved in confrontations between Jerusalem youths 
and occupation forces in the al-Tur 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-tur> neighborhood when he was 
shot in the chest.

Israeli forces stood around him for five to 10 minutes without providing 
any medical assistance, according to B’Tselem. Then when a Red Crescent 
ambulance arrived, Israeli forces tried to obstruct it. But the 
paramedics were able to reach Abu Ghanam and get him into the ambulance 
– which one of the Israeli soldiers tried to get into as well.

“There was some mutual shoving between one of my colleagues and the two 
officers for about a minute, and then we got into the ambulance,” one of 
the medics told B’Tselem. “I locked the ambulance with the central 
locking system.”

The medics then managed to drive to the hospital, despite Israeli forces 
trying to block their way.

But for all the efforts of the medical staff, they could not save Abu 
Ghanam’s life. After he died, Palestinians managed to smuggle him out of 
the hospital 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/six-killed-netanyahu-throws-match-jerusalem-powder-keg>l 
and take him for immediate burial, to avoid Israeli forces confiscating 
his body – a frequent form of collective punishment.


    “Cheap” lives

A report last month 
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/07/israeli-forces-carry-out-violent-hospital-raids-in-ruthless-display-of-force/> 
by Amnesty International called the Israeli assault on the hospital a 
“ruthless display of force.”

“The conduct of Israeli forces who carried out violent raids on 
Al-Makassed hospital harassing and intimidating staff and patients is 
utterly deplorable,” Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and 
North Africa, said. “There can be no justification for preventing 
medical workers from caring for a critically wounded patient.”

Israeli forces habitually raid 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-gunmen-kidnap-patient-palestinian-hospital> 
hospitals, even carrying out extrajudicial executions inside them 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-executes-palestinian-hospital-room>.

The 21 July assault on Al-Makassed hospital, B’Tselem said, “is part of 
a much larger picture, one in which Israeli authorities repeatedly show 
the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem just how 
unwanted they are in their own city and how cheap their lives are.”


-- 
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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