“Attacks against health workers and the disruption of access to healthcare are unacceptable.”
The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that its teams in the occupied West Bank have been subjected to increased violence and restrictions on movement.
Meanwhile, a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic was shot and killed by Jewish “settlers’ gunfire” in the town of Al-Sawiya in Nablus on Saturday. The PRCS said Mohammed Awad Allan served as a volunteer with the Qaryut Ambulance Committee.
The MSF posted on X on Sunday that the organization “has been seeing increased violence and restrictions on movement, including blockages of ambulances.”
“People with life-threatening injuries cannot wait to reach hospitals,” the organization stressed. “Attacks against health workers and the disruption of access to healthcare are unacceptable.”
West Bank under Fire – Two Palestinians Killed, General Strike Declared, Settler Injured
Israeli forces withdrew from the town of Tulkarm and the Nur Shams refugee camp on Sunday morning, following a three-day incursion that left several dead and caused widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure.
At least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military raids on the camp, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday.
Denied Access to Wounded
The organization said an MSF-trained paramedical volunteer was shot in the leg while on duty.
“Due to the hostilities, it took him 7 hours to reach the hospital,” said Itta Helland-Hansen, MSF coordinator.
MSF also said one of its staff members administered CPR to a 16-year-old child after he was shot in the head, but was unable to save him.
Death Toll Rises to Seven – Israeli Incursions in Tulkarm, Refugee Camps Continue
“His father, also a paramedic trained by MSF, learned the news of his son’s killing while working in the ambulance.”
At the same time, the PRCS said its ambulance teams “were denied access to the wounded and patients” in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm because of the complete siege by the Israeli military.
Disaster Risk Assessment
It said on X on Monday that the PRCS team in Tulkarm, consisting of the Disaster Risk Management and Mental Health teams, accompanied by the field coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross, conducted a tour of the Nur Shams camp.
“They conducted a general assessment of the damages caused by the recent Israeli invasion, which resulted in total and partial destruction of residential homes, vehicles, and commercial shops.”
The PRCS team in Tulkarm, consisting of the Disaster Risk Management and Mental Health teams, accompanied by the field coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross, conducted a tour of the Nur Shams camp in #Tulkarm. They conducted a general assessment of the… pic.twitter.com/x8AKoIreIa
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) April 22, 2024
It said that based on this assessment, “a response plan will be implemented with partners to alleviate the suffering of citizens affected by the recent invasion by occupation forces.”
Tensions across the West Bank and east Jerusalem have been heightened with Israeli military raids on several towns and Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian civilians.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the death toll in the West Bank has reached 483 since October 7.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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