Thread by @EvaKBartlett

During Israel's horrific December 2008/January 2009 bombardment of Gaza, I rode in ambulances of Palestinian medics, primarily the Palestinian Red Crescent but also sometimes government ambulances.

THERE WERE NO WEAPONS IN THE AMBULANCES.
WE WENT TO THE AREAS HARDEST HIT BY...

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1712726994113135076

...ISRAELI BOMBING, AT GREAT PERIL, GIVEN ISRAEL **DOES** TARGET MEDICS.

During that war on Gaza, Israel murdered 23 medics & injured 50 more.

1 of the murdered was a medic who I accompanied. Next day, killed by Israeli-fired dart bomb.

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/isr…

It was extremely dangerous at night, and we couldn't see far anyway, so we returned at dawn to collect the remains of Israel's target: a 24 year old civilian night watchman inside the bombed school. His body was torn apart & burned.

A science teacher by profession, Arafa had volunteered as an emergency medic for nearly a decade.

Arafa was killed when Israeli soldier fired a dart bomb at his ambulance.

Next day, Israeli soldiers fired on his mourning tent & nearby homes, killing 6 civilians & injuring 25 more, including a 20-year-old nephew paralyzed from the neck down after darts severed his spinal cord..

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/ens…

21-year-old Wafa was eight months pregnant when she was killed by a flechette bomb.

Ambulance which Arafa Abd al Dayem was next to when he was shelled by an Israeli tank missile filled with flechettes (darts), dying shortly after of his injuries.

Medics I was with during supposed "ceasefire" hours came under Israeli sniper fire, one of the bullets puncturing one of the medics legs, sniper fire up to the ambulance.

THERE WERE NO WEAPONS IN THE AMBULANCE.

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/isr…

NO WEAPONS.

Palestinian civilians (elderly) shot & terrorized by Israeli soldiers.
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/inj…

Abu Sheradha, 60.  Along with his wife, he was kept trapped within his home in eastern Jabaliya, surrounded by Israeli soldiers, and for 3 days wasn’t able to get the diabetes and hypertension medicine he needs.

Souad, 35, shot in both right and left arms and the left side of her abdomen.  Her three grandchildren were killed and the family house demolished by an Israeli army tank shelling at the home in eastern Jabaliya, family said.

63 year old Ahmed, one of at least 4 elderly kept locked in their home, at gunpoint, by Israeli soldiers who’d invaded the area east of Jabaliya

Safhia, 60, shot in wrist & shin & punched in the face.  Husband was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, his body still in house they fled.

Delivering pregnant woman to hospital; many women have been going prematurely into labour, a result, doctors say, of stress and worry under the bombardment. 

The ambulance’s rear window was shattered by a missile blast which land less than 100m from the ambulance.

Death fills the air, the streets in Gaza: updates from Gaza’s north (2009)
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/dea…

The man we transfer to Shifa has been shot in the face. He is 35, civilian, was in/near his house. His face has exploded, we move as fast as possible over torn up roads, ambulance jarring as we move & as medics try to administer delicate care. The army is present here, no safety.

NO WEAPONS. ONLY CIVILIANS MAIMED, MUTILATED, BY ISRAELI SOLDIERS.

Elderly

Updates from runs with medics; grief of husband of drone-struck woman (2009)
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/imm…

NOTE: Medics needed ‘coordination’ to go to one of the many areas within Gaza that the Israeli military had invaded & prevented medics from reaching for nearly 2 weeks.

The coordination process is a joke, the Red Crescent asks the Red Cross to ask for Israel’s permission...

...to pick up those the Israeli army has killed or injured, or terrified into hiding in their homes, or even locked into their houses and abused, shot, or shelled...

From my (2009) post linked above:

"a missile strikes outside a small house in a heavily-populated area. Woman around 35 is killed. Family member comes out of the home after a minute to see if anyone has been injured. Minutes later she is struck by the 2nd, inevitable, missile.

...When we arrive, the husband is wailing, a shrill wail of grief. He is also helping to hold the white plastic sheet holding his wife’s many shredded body parts. He focuses on the task, then breaks out in wails.

His grieving is non-stop, in the ambulance and at the morgue ...

Transit in one of the few working Red Crescent ambulances in Jabaliya region. Rear and side windows blown out, covered with opaque plastic.

Palestinian medics continue their work, in spite of the dangers they face (2009)
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/wha…

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