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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-forces-bring-terror-jerusalem-hospital">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-forces-bring-terror-jerusalem-hospital</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Video: Israeli forces bring terror to
Jerusalem hospital</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-
</span><span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-08-15T19:28:54+00:00">15 August 2017</span></span>
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<p>This video
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDRS2lVVfwY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDRS2lVVfwY</a> shows
Israeli occupation forces bringing terror and violence
inside East Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed hospital.</p>
<p>At one point, Israeli occupation forces tried to
seize a critically wounded man who was being taken to
surgery.</p>
<p>The video shows medics and civilians attempting to
protect the man, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-ghanam">Muhammad
Abu Ghanam</a>, from being seized. But the
20-year-old died about 20 minutes after the commotion.</p>
<p>The video was published Sunday by the human rights
group B’Tselem, along with a <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/20170810_police_raid_east_jerusalem_hospital">harrowing
report</a> on the 21 July Israeli raid.</p>
<p>The assault was part of Israel’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-boy-killed-during-al-aqsa-protest">violent
reaction</a> to the campaign of civil disobedience
and protests by Jerusalemites last month against
Israeli moves to tighten control over the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-aqsa-mosque">al-Aqsa
mosque compound</a>.</p>
<p>Abu Ghanam was one of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-boy-killed-during-al-aqsa-protest">six
Palestinians</a> killed by Israeli forces during
protests related to al-Aqsa.</p>
<h2>Maternity ward raided</h2>
<p>“Words fail to convey the gravity of the police’s
conduct inside the hospital,” B’Tselem said.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Israeli forces blocked ambulance</h2>
<p>Abu Ghanam had been involved in confrontations
between Jerusalem youths and occupation forces in the
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-tur">al-Tur</a>
neighborhood when he was shot in the chest.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>The medics then managed to drive to the hospital,
despite Israeli forces trying to block their way.</p>
<p>But for all the efforts of the medical staff, they
could not save Abu Ghanam’s life. After he died,
Palestinians managed to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/six-killed-netanyahu-throws-match-jerusalem-powder-keg">smuggle
him out of the hospital</a>l and take him for
immediate burial, to avoid Israeli forces confiscating
his body – a frequent form of collective punishment.</p>
<h2>“Cheap” lives</h2>
<p>A <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/07/israeli-forces-carry-out-violent-hospital-raids-in-ruthless-display-of-force/">report
last month</a> by Amnesty International called the
Israeli assault on the hospital a “ruthless display of
force.”</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Israeli forces <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-gunmen-kidnap-patient-palestinian-hospital">habitually
raid</a> hospitals, even <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-executes-palestinian-hospital-room">carrying
out extrajudicial executions inside them</a>.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
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