By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East
GAZA CITY, Gaza – On January 7, after four days of seeking Israeli guarantees of safe passage, a rescue team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) entered Gaza City. The rescue team searched several homes in a row of ruined houses in Zaytun, the most shelled neighborhood in Gaza City. In one home, the ICRC found four emaciated children, too weak to stand, next to the corpses of their mothers. In the home, another survivor was found; he was also too weak to stand.
Muhammad Shaheen, a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the team found a scene of devastation. They discovered another 10 corpses inside the house and “dozens” more dead lying in the rubble in the area around.
The ICRC statement added that a search of another home revealed 15 other survivors, including several wounded. A search of a third home found three more dead. The Zaytun neighborhood was the scene of an Israeli attack on a house on Monday that was known to have killed nine members of the Samouni family. It was the first time medics had been able to reach the scene.
ICRC believes “that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.” Their statement called the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.
Pierre Wettach, the ICRC’s head of delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”
In an ICRC news release, the organization stated that “Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood. Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart.” In total, the ICRC/PRCS rescue team evacuated 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted.
The statement said the group was told more wounded people were in the neighborhood, and demanded that Israel grant it and the Red Crescent immediate access and safe passage to search for them. However, the ICRC has still not received confirmation from the Israeli authorities that this will be allowed.
In response to the ICRC’s statement, a spokesman for Israel’s military said that the Red Cross’s news release was the first he had heard of the alleged incident. The spokesman told CNN that “We do make every effort and our soldiers do put themselves at risk” to help wounded civilians.
On January 6, the ICRC held a press briefing, during which ICRC’s Director of Operations, Pierre Krähenbühl, described the situation of civilians in Gaza as “intolerable.” He expressed the ICRC’s grave concern over the growing number of civilian deaths and injuries and the increasing amount of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, that have been effected by the Israeli military operations. Krähenbühl added that direct attacks against civilians are prohibited, as are indiscriminate attacks. Furthermore, military objectives must not be located in or near densely populated areas.
“The only people that can legitimately be attacked are those who participate directly in the hostilities. Everyone else must be spared. Likewise, essential civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, the water supply and sewage networks must not be directly attacked. Respect for the rules of IHL – respect of civilians, distinction between civilians and combatants, measures of precaution – are of the utmost importance, all the more so when one considers that Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated areas. As the conflict intensifies, it is becoming ever more dangerous for civilians.”
For more information, please see:
BBC – Israel Accused Over Gaza Wounded – 8 January 2009
Guardian – Medical Teams Find ‘Unbelievable’ Horror Amid Rubble – 8 January 2009
ICRC – Gaza: ICRC Demands Urgent Access to Wounded as Israeli Army Fails to Assist Wounded Palestinians – 8 January 2008
New York Times – Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses – 8 January 2009
Press Association – Infants ‘Left With Mothers’ Bodies’ – 8 January 2009
Times – Red Cross Finds Starving Children With 12 Corpses in Gaza – 8 January 2009
CNN – Red Cross Demands Gaza Access, Cites ‘Shocking’ Discoveries – 7 January 2009
ICRC – Gaza: Plight of Civilians Traumatic in ‘Full-Blown Humanitarian Crises’ – 6 January 2009
